Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee summoned President Biden’s U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO, Amanda Bennett, and two other officials to testify last week about what committee chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) called a “culture of corruption” at the federal bureaucracy in charge of U.S. government’s international media outreach.
Unfortunately, they did not explore one of the most outrageous but still largely hidden scandals at Voice of America. I’m referring to multiple social media posts with hateful messages directed at Donald Trump, uploaded by the agency’s federal employees over many months during Bennett’s previous tenure as the Obama-appointed VOA director.
The subcommittee hearing took place before the assassination attempt on former President Trump and focused on other recent misdeeds at Bennett’s agency. But as the attempt on Trump’s life has forced many Americans to re-examine the culture of political and personal hatred that is destroying this country, it is worth pondering how some federally employed VOA journalists working in a little-known billion-dollar government-media operation made vile and hateful anti-Trump posts from the same private social media accounts where they identify themselves as VOA journalists.
VOA once helped the U.S. win the Cold War by transmitting uncensored radio broadcasts to countries behind the Iron Curtain. It still has a vital national security role to play. So why are its employees degrading its past and purpose by behaving so unprofessionally in spreading hatred against an American politician who may soon be president again.
I felt compelled in June 2016 to warn Bennett, who was then in charge of VOA, that several of its English newsroom reporters were posting highly offensive anti-Trump hate memes and slogans.
Having run VOA’s most successful foreign language service in the 1980s, I had never seen such partisan public hate-messaging by VOA journalists under any other VOA director before Bennett.
Sadly, my warning in 2016 had no effect. More than a year later, many of the same social media posts were still visible online and received “likes” from other VOA English newsroom editors and reporters. As a former VOA broadcaster and manager, for whom nonpartisanship in journalism is sacred, it saddens me deeply to know that these posts included such descriptions of Trump as “f— cheeto with hair,” “three cheers for f—ing Trumpy and his neo-Nazi crew,” and “F—face Von Clownstick.” One Facebook post by a VOA reporter depicted Trump as a male sex organ. Another showed him with a Nazi swastika over his head.
These posts were not removed for many months. And as far as I know, not a single one of their VOA originators was fired. One broadcaster, whom Bennett held in high regard and promoted to be an editor in charge of defending the free press, may have been quietly reassigned after whistleblowers exposed his private social media posts. Still, he did not receive a public rebuke as a warning to others.
In a video posted by VOA in 2016 under its logo, Trump was called “punk,” “dog,” “pig,” “con,” “buls— artist,” “mutt,” “idiot,” “fool,” “bozo,” “blatantly stupid” and threatened with physical violence.
Aside from hate speech by government employees, antisemitism is another severe problem damaging VOA’s proud Cold War legacy as a bulwark against tyranny and oppression. Bennett’s testimony at the hearing last week was reminiscent of the earlier testimony by Ivy League university presidents about tolerating antisemitism on college campuses, which led to some of them resigning. As in the case of university presidents, members of Congress received evasive answers and were met with Bennett’s refusal to acknowledge the problems or accept responsibility.
VOA whistleblowers told congressional staffers before the hearing that some of their colleagues were privately posting “death to Israel” memes and that senior managers forbade them to call Hamas “terrorists” except in quotes. Bennett tried to defend her leadership by making a curious claim that an AI analysis revealed many uses of the word “terrorists” in VOA programs. This is unsurprising, since there are 48 VOA language services, and not all of them have been corrupted by pro-Hamas Marxist propaganda. Also, the word has been allowed, albeit reluctantly, to be used with attribution.
VOA management eventually removed the ban on calling Hamas “terrorists” after congressional and other outside protests, but not immediately, as Bennett falsely implied in her answers. Chairman McCaul, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) challenged her on this and other points. Some VOA English newsroom reporters and their editors still refer to Hamas terrorists as “militants” or “fighters” rather than as terrorists who murdered or took hostage defenseless Jewish women, children and men.
Antisemitism in VOA programs has been increasing for at least a decade, posing a critical national security concern. Many foreign adversaries interpret the lack of a robust U.S. response to antisemitism at home as a sign of weakness. This perception creates an opening for other countries to support Hamas, Iran, Russia and China, leading to alliances against the U.S.
The mismanagement of the U.S. Agency for Global Media by its longtime leaders should not be allowed to continue and contribute to this national security problem. Bennett’s leadership failure is threatening funding for what are still badly needed foreign-language news programs.
The new VOA director, Michael Abramowitz, also testified at last week’s hearing. In contrast to Bennett, the former head of Freedom House and former Washington Post editor did not try to bamboozle the subcommittee. Unfortunately, this was not like the reply I got when I later sent several questions to VOA’s Public Relations Office regarding their reporter’s use of Hamas-provided casualty figures in Gaza without any mention that Israel disputed the figures.
I received answers that nearly all followed the same old pattern of evasion, “The premise of your question is inaccurate. VOA reporters adhere to the VOA Charter….” Some reporters do, but many partisans in the VOA newsroom do not.
Biden can still stop this, help himself and solve a national security problem by changing key personnel at the agency and reforming the U.S. government’s media agency to keep it nonpartisan and professional.
Lacking competent leadership, VOA cannot effectively counter Vladimir Putin’s disinformation. It even employed known former Russian propagandists who had worked for Putin’s state media, defended his invasion of Ukraine, and, in at least one case, produced antisemitic videos. In 2022, authorities in Ukraine and Poland accused a VOA freelance reporter of being a Russian spy.
This is not what Americans need, and it’s not what they are paying for. Republicans, Democrats and the White House must make a concerted effort to reform the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
Ted Lipien was chief of Voice of America’s Polish service during Poland’s successful struggle for democracy. He later served as VOA’s acting associate director and president of Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty.