Pompeo accuses VOA of "demeaning America" in speech whistleblowers blast as "political propaganda"

[Zorro]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: CNN

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Voice of America news service of "demeaning America" in a speech that a watchdog group criticized as "political propaganda" and a violation of the government-funded agency's own rules.

Pompeo delivered remarks in person to a command audience of VOA staff despite the Covid pandemic, urging them to report that "this is the greatest nation the world has ever known." Pompeo did not mention the pandemic, the insurrectionist violence that rocked the Capitol last week, leaving five dead, or President Donald Trump's role in encouraging the chaos.

The speech was broadcast live, worldwide, through VOA channels in more than 40 languages in what the Government Accountability Project, a group representing VOA whistleblowers, called "a violation of law, rule and policy." No questions were allowed after the remarks or the brief on-stage conversation with VOA Director Robert Reilly that followed, giving Pompeo a chance to tout Trump administration policies unchecked.

The speech deepened concerns that Michael Pack, Trump's appointee to lead the US Agency for Global Media, which controls the purse strings for VOA and other services, is intent on reducing them to government mouthpieces, a step that many say would undermine the credibility and integrity of the media operations under the USAGM umbrella.

VOA staff had been told the speech would be about "the importance of VOA and the challenges facing the United States in the world today," according to the GAP letter sent to Pack and Reilly on January 8.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/11/media/mike-pompeo-voa-propaganda/index.html

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I will be so glad when this buffoonish POS and his toadies are fired and gone. They have done tremendous damage to the USA's reputation to the rest of the world.

[BumRushDaShow]

1. I have listened to VOA on and off on shortwave since the early '90s

and have been heartened to consistently find that they were not only NOT propagandized but were actually more to-the-point and fair in their reporting than the corporate-owned M$M.

Getting the political appointee stench out of that organization can't come soon enough!

[Omaha Steve]

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