U.S. Military’s Voice of America Foreign Radio Goes Domestic
Unable to Veto, Obama Unintentionally Gives Trump the Gift of a Presidential Propaganda Machine.
Despite objecting in principal, former President Barack Obama signed into law in 2016 a near 1500 page national defense spending bill that included an $800 million dollar budget for Voice of America, the U.S. Military’s foreign radio program in existence since World War 2. However, due to little known changes in the law, historic changes to the program now surround the foreign outreach radio program up to now always seen as innocuous at home and a good way to spread the elusive promise of freedom abroad.
Per Rachel Maddow as seen on MediaMatters.com, “It's been overseen, for example, by a broadcasting board of governors, sort of a panel of worthy professionals. They're bipartisan and appointed by both Republicans and Democrats. The agency's also (has been) run as part of the State Department. It (had been) run in a way that's supposed to be insulated from our domestic politics so it can't be used as a partisan tool by anyone in government. That's the way it's supposed to go. But on page 1,404 of the defense bill that was passed by the Republican Congress right after the election, they took the Board of Governors part out of the equation.”
Maddow goes on to report that the Board of Governors will be replaced by a CEO appointed directly by the President of the United States. Translation? Theoretically, for the first time ever the United States President will have access to a state run media platform a la that which Americans scoff at in countries like Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba, and other communist countries. Taken together with the Trump administration’s hostile relationship with the free press and seeming preference to use social media to offer ‘alternative facts’ to mainstream media’s analysis, this radio station could be seen as one more way to manipulate public opinion to garner support for Trump domestic and foreign policy agendas.
“No president has ever been able to use the resources of the U.S. government like that at his or her disposal. But they've done it now and they've already installed their people in the corner office,” stated Maddow. “It's one thing for them to call it an "alternative fact" when the White House presents a blatant lie to the American public. It is another thing for them to (have federal tax resources) to overtly try to build in a dedicated alternative factual universe for their supporters to live in.”
In addition to Maddow, a number of news outlets have expressed concern for the divergent purpose of Voice of America and its new leadership executive’s potential initiatives due to his or her status as a presidential appointee. National Public Radio (NPR) reports that “(VOA) is intended to provide reliable news reports in multiple languages to countries that lack a viable independent media and to promote democratic values abroad.” Quoting the Washington Post, NPR reported “The Washington Post's editorial board, suggesting Trump could appoint the head of Breitbart News as the broadcasting CEO, wrote, "If Congress's intention was for U.S. broadcasting to rival the Kremlin's, it may well get its wish."
Noteworthy, the nine members of the Board of Governors did appoint its own CEO prior to the legislation being signed as they found it too unwieldy for sitting officers in different parts of the country to effectively govern without a central figure offering continuous oversight. According to the Voice of America website, “The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) has hailed the new law, which updates one of the founding statutes of public diplomacy in the United States, a change that the Board has long supported and had incorporated into its strategic plan.”
Sources:
http://www.insidevoa.com/a/new-law-allows-domestic-use-of-voa-reports/1577667.html
https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2017/01/25/rachel-maddow-details-how-trump-turning-voice-america-his-personal-propaganda-outlet/215135
"An Obama-Backed Change At Voice Of America Has Trump Critics Worried." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
