The government-funded media syndicate being dismantled by President Trump spreads anti-U.S. propaganda, covers news with a distinct leftist bias and even utilized Stalinist techniques to retaliate against journalists and producers behind a newscast—that cited Judicial Watch as a source—critical of leftwing billionaire George Soros. The taxpayer-funded news agency also ordered staff to refrain from calling Hamas terrorists, suppresses negative stories about Iran, has been infiltrated by anti-American, pro-Islamic state interests and employed a Russian anti-U.S. propagandist. This history indicates that scrutiny of the public conglomerate, known as U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), was long overdue. The president’s recent executive order to gut it will save American taxpayers around $900 million a year that could easily be applied to a myriad of domestic programs.
Five international media networks—Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting—operate under USAGM and reportedly reach 345 million people worldwide in 59 languages. The global media agency was created to counter disinformation spread by oppressive regimes abroad. The USAGM website states that its mission is “to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.” The editorial objective of this government-funded media was developed during the Cold War and is supposed to support the national strategic objectives of the United States. It was specifically created to provide people in communist nations, via outlets such as Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, with information about the free world that is prohibited by their totalitarian rulers.
It makes no sense for American taxpayers to fund anti-U.S. propaganda that gets broadcast and published worldwide. That apparently is what has been occurring for many years at USAGM, which has a workforce of around 3,500 and an $886 million budget in 2024. The agency requested a substantial budget increase of $950 million for fiscal year 2025. In its Congressional Budget Justification USAGM touts its Diversity and Inclusion Initiative with the appointment of an inaugural Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) who will collaborate closely with the Office of Civil Rights to align Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) training with a focus on crucial conversations, cultural diversity, and inclusivity. In the document the agency assures that the new diversity chief will implement greater visibility and awareness of USAGM’s DEIA initiatives, identify new opportunities for DEIA initiatives agency wide, and advance equity for underserved communities.
Since Trump ordered USAGM’s shutdown the administration official charged with the job, senior adviser Kari Lake, has found a multitude of problems, including massive national security violations in which spies and terrorist sympathizers infiltrated the agency, eye-popping self-dealing involving contracts, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on fake news companies, and obscene overspending on building leases with no broadcasting facilities. Lake’s team even uncovered a $9 million commission to a private real estate agency with connections. “Waste, fraud and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it,” said Lake, a former television news broadcaster. She has determined that, from top to bottom, the USAGM is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer as well as a national security risk. It is not salvageable, and Lake’s team will clean it up so it can meet the “core mission of telling America’s story throughout the world in a meaningful, impactful and effective way.”
Liberals have long been in charge at USAGM, and the previously mentioned Soros broadcast is just one of many examples. The Spanish-language segment, which focused on the Hungarian philanthropist’s efforts to cripple sovereign governments in Latin America, aired on Television Martí (which operates under OCB) and was available for months online before a scandal-plagued Democratic senator discovered it and demanded an investigation. The disgraced veteran lawmaker, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for bribery, extortion and conspiracy. At his request, Obama’s USAGM chief, John F. Lansing, fired eight reporters and editors involved in the Soros broadcast. Judicial Watch was cited as a source because it investigated State Department funding of Soros groups in Colombia and published a report on Soros’ initiatives to advance a radical globalist agenda in Guatemala.
Source: Judicial Watch