Good bye VOA, RFE, RFA, Radio Marti

[bigdonho]

Trump has ordered all employees of the U.S. Agency for Global Media which operates the Voice of America and Radio/TV Marti on to administrative leave with no access to their offices, studios, transmitter sites. He promised to do it and he has. Sadly, the US will loose a valuable asset that will never be restored.

 

[KilowattKat]

The courts have reinstated the jobs of tens of thousands of government employees that Trump furloughed. We'll see if these radio employees also get reinstated.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Already being extensively discussed on the Kari Lake thread.

 

[TheBigA]

As we've discussed, the agency is independent and not subject to the whim of the president. The EO references "statute," and the statute says he can't do this. The fact that the employees are on administrative leave and not fired says to me that this is a test case.

 

[KilowattKat]

Kari Lake can't be too happy about this. She would be out of the job that Trump just gave her.

 

[KeithE4]

Kari Lake can't be too happy about this. She would be out of the job that Trump just gave her.

NO-O-O-O-O-O!!!!!! If she finds herself unemployed, she might run for another office in Arizona. 🤪

 

[davideduardo]

As we've discussed, the agency is independent and not subject to the whim of the president. The EO references "statute," and the statute says he can't do this. The fact that the employees are on administrative leave and not fired says to me that this is a test case.

But, for all practical purposes, VOA and the sub-sets are not operating and dead.

 

[TheBigA]

But, for all practical purposes, VOA and the sub-sets are not operating and dead.

Their staffs are all still being paid.

 

[davideduardo]

Their staffs are all still being paid.

But the "stations" are either running repeats or not running at all. That is "dead" to me.

 

[TheBigA]

But the "stations" are either running repeats or not running at all. That is "dead" to me.

Hundreds of radio stations in the US run repeats and fill music on weekends. Are they dead too?

 

[gr8oldies]

NO-O-O-O-O-O!!!!!! If she finds herself unemployed, she might run for another office in Arizona. 🤪

"But I won I won I won I won I won!"

 

[Mediafrog+]

Hundreds of radio stations in the US run repeats and fill music on weekends. Are they dead too?

The USAGM output now consists of increasingly outdated recorded newscasts current affairs programs. The music fill is just a few tunes repeated ad nauseum.

It’s like a redirect loop without any redirect instructions.

 

[TheBigA]

The USAGM output now consists of increasingly outdated recorded newscasts current affairs programs.

To the administration, that's better than what they had been doing. Read this statement from the white house on the VOA shutdown:

The Voice of Radical America

President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on Friday will ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda. Dan Robinson,

www.whitehouse.gov

 

[Jean Luc]

Divorcing this from the political context, does the U.S. really need a World War II and Cold War propaganda medium today - especially one that relies on largely obsolete short-wave broadcasting?

 

[TheBigA]

Divorcing this from the political context, does the U.S. really need a World War II and Cold War propaganda medium today - especially one that relies on largely obsolete short-wave broadcasting?

It depends on who the administration views as the "enemies." What you're asking was the thrust of the section on USAGM in Project 2025. The author of that article is back at the agency now, so those questions are being asked. She specifically brought up shortwave in the article. My take based on what she wrote was that it was an open question. But they definitely see the value in any kind of media, especially if they can control the message.

This morning Lindsey Graham was asked about all this, and it was obvious he still feels a need for this kind of thing aimed at Russia. I agree that shortwave is probably not the most effective transmission system. But the people making the decisions are more interested in the message, not the medium.

I knew somebody on the BBOG that predated the USAGM during the Iraq war. They were running a radio station in Baghdad after the capture of Saddam and the occupation of the city. The radio station was mainly a music station. It wasn't as much news and information, but "soft diplomacy," winning the "hearts & minds" of the people. One day my friend told me that US radio station was #1 in Baghdad! He was as excited about it as if it was a Nielsen station in NYC. That's where I see this going.

 

[TheBigA]

Following the statement from the white house, there was this statement from Kari Lake at USAGM:

USAGM, Senior Advisor Kari Lake cancels obscenely expensive 15-year-lease that burdened the taxpayers and enforces Trump's Executive Order to drastically downsize agency

Today, in compliance with President Trump's Executive Order titled, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, dated March 14, 2025, the US Agency for Global Media initiated measures to eliminate the non-statutory components and functions to the maximum extent consistent with...

www.usagm.gov

This 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 this nation—and irretrievably broken. 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.