(Newswire.net— June 16, 2020) — The director of the media group Voice of America (VoA) and her deputy resigned after their recent conflicts with the administration of the President of the US, Donald Trump.
The conflict between the Trump administration and the VoA, which is financed by the US government, caused concern over the possible impact on the independence of that global news network.
Former VoA director Amanda Bennett and her deputy Sandy Sugawara have announced that they are leaving the organization after Trump’s associate, conservative film producer Michael Pack, became the head of the government agency that oversees the work of the Voice of America and related media. Michael Pack swore before Congress to respect and honor the firewall that guarantees VOA’s independence, however, the former VoA’s director has argued that this move could destroy the network’s independence.
In an email the Associated Press had access to, Bennett told employees that Pack should be able to choose his own leadership in an organization created to promote democracy and American values around the world. Democrats in Congress opposed Pack’s election, fearing that he could turn the VoA into Trump’s propaganda machine.
Trump and his supporters sharply criticized the VoA’s reporting regarding the coronavirus pandemic, contrary to the White House’s attitude towards China’s reaction to the epidemic.
The White House went so far as to criticize the VoA in a written statement and ordered the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) not to cooperate with the journalists of that media house.
Trump and his allies have long been suspicious of the Voice of America and media close to it, seeing them as elements of a “deep state” trying to thwart their policies.
The hostility became open on April 9, when Trump’s Social Media adviser Dan Scavino published a text from the VoA about China on Twitter.
Scavino wrote on an official White House Twitter account that American taxpayers pay for China’s propaganda through the Voice of America, financed by the US government, and added “Shame!”
“Voice of America spends your money speaking for authoritarian regimes,” Scavino wrote. “VOA’s annual budget of approximately $ 200 million was to be spent on the mission of “telling America’s story” and “presenting the policies of the United States clearly and effectively,” he wrote.
The text published by Scavino at the time was actually an Associated Press report, but the White House day accused the VoA the next of using taxpayers’ money “to speak on behalf of authoritarian regimes” after it announced the lifting of the movement ban in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first appeared.