ANNALS OF TRUMPISTAN: Kari Lake is trying to do what the Nazis couldn't: Kill the Voice of America | EJ Montini, Opinion, Arizona Republic

KARI LAKE spoke to a local Republican fundraiser here in September 2023.  From The Arizona Republic: 

Kari Lake is trying to do what the Nazis couldn't: Kill the Voice of America | Opinion

Kari Lake must answer for her plan to gut the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which was created in WWII to counter Nazi propaganda.

EJ Montini

Arizona Republic

• Kari Lake, under the Trump administration, plans to terminate a large percentage of Voice of America (VOA) employees.
• Hindering VOA's ability to provide objective news globally will leave authoritarian propaganda unchecked.
• Authoritarian regimes have tried for decades to suppress VOA's broadcasts. Lake is simply helping them.

In service to Donald Trump, Kari Lake is determined to accomplish something that Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China and North Korea have been unable to do:

Kill the Voice of America (VOA).

She took a big step forward — or is it backward? — on June 20 when she announced that 639 employees at VOA would be terminated from what she called a “bloated unaccountable bureaucracy.”

This is all part of the Trump administration’s plan to wipe out roughly 1,400 jobs, or 85% of the workforce, at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which owns VOA.

Michael Abramowitz, Voice of America’s director, said of the plan, “The scope of the agency’s actions appears massive and would eviscerate Voice of America’s congressionally mandated role to provide objective news to closed societies and other places around the world.”

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A muted VOA was 'a gift to Iran's Supreme Leader'

Lake is set to testify on June 25 during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

She might be asked, I’d imagine, why VOA broadcast only a paltry 75 minutes of content to its audience in Iran during a week when the U.S. bombed that country’s nuclear facilities.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen called it “a gift to Iran’s Supreme Leader,” adding, “Her decimation of U.S. broadcasting leaves authoritarian propaganda unchecked by U.S. backed independent media and is a perversion of the law and congressional intent. It is a dark day for the truth.”

Why did Kari Lake fire those who risked their lives?

Lake might be asked as well about having fired more than 500 contractorsat VOA, some of whom risk their lives to spread truth in their home countries.

She might be asked about the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists imprisoned in Belarus, Russia and Russia-occupied Crimea.

Opinion: Kari Lake's new Voice of America will make your ears bleed

One journalist locked up in Azerbaijan said, “Unfortunately, journalism in our country today is almost equated with terrorism.”

Is that where America also is headed?

Lake is giving China and Russia what they want

On June 27, the federal judge who ruled that the administration must keep the international news service going is holding a hearing to find out why Trump’s enforcers are not complying.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wants a written update and said, “What would be the purpose of Voice of America if there was no voice?”

The Voice of America started broadcasting in 1942 as a way to combat Nazi propaganda.

Steve Herman, Voice of America’s chief national correspondent, called the VOA “the hard edge of soft power.”

He pointed out that over the years the Soviets, Chinese and North Koreans have tried to kill the Voice of America by jamming the radio signal; by making it illegal to listen to or watch a VOA broadcast; by blocking VOA websites with a firewall; and even by throwing VOA reporters in prison.

Herman said, “Ask yourself why — if it wasn’t effective — would they be going to that extent?”

An even better question, now, would be: Why is Kari Lake doing their job for them?

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.