“Voice of America exports America’s most powerful product, freedom of speech.”
No longer. Trump effectively shut it down by executive order on Friday, calling it the Voice of Radical America. He decreed that VOA’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), must eliminate all activities that are not required by law.
On the same day, Trump darkened the halls of the Department of Justice and said: “I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6 percent bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what they do is illegal . . . . And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really changing law, and it just cannot be legal.”
Really? Mike Lawler has somehow appeared countless times on CNN and MSNBC to speak freely and promote Trump’s party line with gusto. More often than he holds Town Halls with his constituents.
Where is Mike Lawler’s voice on protecting freedom of speech? He’s been very vocal about the anti-Israel protests at Columbia: “Disrupting classes to shut down voices you disagree with isn’t free speech—it’s censorship.” What about shutting down a free press you disagree with? Shutting down the Voice of America because you don’t like their reporting? Barring the AP from the White House press pool? Intimidating the free press in every way possible, including activating the Department of Justice? A bit more consequential than disrupting classes.
For what it’s worth, mediabiasfactcheck.com rates VOA as one of the most credible and least biased media sources.
“U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican former chairperson of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in a statement to NPR earlier this week that he appreciated the ability of USAGM networks to disseminate information in China that the ruling Chinese Communist party censors sought to block there.
“‘That’s why I strongly support many of its programs,’ McCaul said. ‘Programs like [Radio Free Asia] provide day-to-day updates on far-off regions, uphold a free press even in authoritarian countries, and ensure Americans—and people everywhere—are not subject to our adversaries’ propaganda.’”
‘Bloody Saturday’ at Voice of America (npr.org)
Mike Lawler is also a Republican sitting on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Is he not concerned? Where is his voice?
We are losing our voice in the world. The free press is threatened at home. The authoritarians are thrilled as they substitute their propaganda for our free speech. We have replaced the Voice of America with the Voice of Trump. And it seems we’ve lost our voice in Congress. For the moment.
Rule of Lawler 