OPINION

Clifford D. May, founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) wrote a column for The Washington Times in which he discusses White House criticism of foreign propaganda — Chinese and Iranian — in Voice of America (VOA) programs under current Obama administration-appointed director Amanda Bennett.

Clifford May noted the White House article, “Amid a Pandemic, Voice of America Spends Your Money to Promote Foreign Propaganda,” which appeared last Friday in the 1600 Daily presidential newsletter and was reposted permanently by the White House the next day.

The VOA “often speaks for America’s adversaries — not its citizens,” the article charged, noting that it has “amplified Beijing’s propaganda” about the coronavirus by calling China’s “lockdown a successful ‘model’ copied by much of the world,” and tweeting “video of the Communist government’s celebratory light show marking the quarantine’s end.”

May noted a number of scandals at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM and at the Voice of America during the recent tenure of former USAGM CEO John F. Lansing.

In September 2019, John Lansing, installed as CEO under President Obama, resigned to head National Public Radio. Two months later, a staffer Mr. Lansing had named his chief strategy officer, pleaded guilty to stealing more than $40,000 from the USAGM.

Those who regard themselves not as a loyal opposition but rather the “resistance” are determined to block both President Trump’s policies and personnel, leaving as much power as possible in the hands of Obama holdovers and ideologically aligned career bureaucrats.

This seems to me patently undemocratic — an assault on executive authority and the office of the presidency; in effect, an attempt to establish one-party rule.

READ MORE:

Obama holdovers run U.S. global media, and they’re not giving it up

U.S. broadcasting entities worldwide need a major housecleaning

By Clifford D. May, Washington Times, April 14, 2020.

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Archived White House Post, April 10, 2020