Trump starts ripping up government-funded media giants branding them 'propaganda'

The Trump administration has completely dismantled a federally-funded media giant that it has blasted as 'radical propaganda.'

On Friday, the president signed an executive order that commands the dismantling of seven federal agencies, including the US Agency for Global Media - which serves as the parent of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

As a result, some 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff found themselves suddenly unemployed - with many showing up to work on Saturday only to find they were locked out of the studios, according to NPR. 

Those workers then discovered they had received emails telling them their jobs have been terminated, but they will continue to receive full pay and benefits until otherwise noted.

The White House now says the executive order 'will ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.' 

The US Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, whom Trump appointed to serve as Voice of America's chief in December, similarly released a statement Saturday saying the agency is 'not salvageable'.

'From top to bottom,  this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer - a national security risk for the nation - and irretrievably broken,' it said, Fox News reports. 

'While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule.' 

A deputy White House spokesperson also celebrated the end of the agency, posting 'goodbye' in 20 languages over a link to a story about how Voice of America refused to call Hamas terrorists following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has been gutting federal agencies, also wrote about the end of the US Agency for Global Media.

'While winding down this global government propaganda agency, it has temporarily been renamed the Department of Propaganda Everywhere (DOPE),' he joked on his X platform. 

The US Agency for Global Media was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda. Its broadcasters and their sister networks covering the Middle East and Cuba now reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week.

Its goal is to deliver news and cultural programming to places where a free press is threatened or doesn't exist, with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcasting in Eastern Europe - including in Russia and Ukraine, and Radio Free Asia broadcasting in China and North Korea.

Executives at the network, and fans of its broadcasts, have argued that it plays an important role in American diplomacy.

'I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,' Michael Abramowitz, the director of VOA, posted on LinkedIn, arguing it played an important role 'in the fight for freedom and democracy around the world.'

Steve Capus, the president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, also told NPR: 'The cancelation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's grant agreement would be a massive gift to America's enemies.

'The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years,' he claimed. 'Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker.'

President of the National Press Club in Washington Mike Balsamo similarly derided the cuts to the agency, saying it undermines America's commitment to a free and independent press.

'For decades, Voice of America has delivered fact-based independent journalism to audiences worldwide, often in places where press freedom does not exist,' he said. 

But critics have claimed Voice of America has 'sanitized' Hamas when its executives told staff members to 'avoid calling' it and its members terrorists 'except in quotes.'

It then came under fire again in January when an article neglected to note that residents in Gaza celebrated Hamas when the terrorist group brought out coffins holding the remains of Israeli hostages - including two children.

'Let's get the facts straight: Hamas paraded the dead bodies of innocent Israelis, including two children, in front of cheering crowds,' House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida, told the National Review at the time.

'American taxpayers should not be paying the salaries of Hamas apologists who sprout terrorist propaganda.' 

Voice of America was also previously criticized when it ran an article in 2020 that asked 'What is "White Privilege" and Whom Does it Help?' as well as a story and a video that downplayed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal in the days before the 2020 presidential election. 

It even received some backlash from some of its own, when a former reporter at Voice of America slammed the outlet in an op-ed for the Washington Times. 

'I have monitored the agency's bureaucracy along with many of its reporters and concluded that it has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation, often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media,' Dan Robinson wrote in November.

'It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement,' he continued, arguing that 'taxpayers have certainly not gotten $950 million (the Biden administration's Fiscal 2024 budget request for USAGM) worth of accountability and transparency from USAGM and VOA in recent years.' 

It now seems the cuts to the USAGM have been planned for weeks, as three staffers for DOGE camped out at the agency, gaining access to its budget, social media and other activities, according to NPR.

The USAGM also previously withheld money Radio Free Asia needed to meet payroll, while freelancers told NPR they have not been paid since last month after the aides assigned to USAGM from DOGE froze its funds.

DOGE has also previously declared war against NPR and PBS, both of which are also federally-funded.

In two letters sent to the CEOs of the outlets last month - Katherine Maher and Paula Kerger - Marjorie Taylor Greene, the DOGE subcommittee chair, called on them to testify on Capitol Hill to defend the government funding they use to share 'systematically biased content.'

Greene said that the department plans to address its concerns about the station's 'blatantly ideological and partisan coverage' at the hearing, scheduled for either the week of March 3 or March 24. 

In each letter, the subcommittee gave examples of 'bias' reporting done by both NPR and PBS against Musk, and also cited NPR's decision to not report on Hunter's laptop scandal. 

At the same time, the Trump administration has ousted the Associated Press from the White House's press pool over its refusal to refer to a southern body of water as the 'Gulf of America' rather than the 'Gulf of Mexico.'

The president labeled the 177-year-old publishing agency 'radical left.'

'Well, we're going to be now calling the shots,' Trump said.

'AP has been terrible. I think they're radical left. I think they're third-rate reporters,' he continued. 

'I know the person, that specific young lady that works on the account is terrible. She's a radical left lunatic, as far as I'm concerned.'