Secretary Pompeo: Thank you all. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for the warm welcome.
Michael, thank you for your leadership of this extremely important institution. Bob, congratulations on your return to the helm of Voice of America. I’m really glad to be here. I’m honored to be invited and it’s always a pleasure to be with a tanker comrade.
I wish to thank the head of the other network here today — Ye Wang Hui of Radio Free Asia. Where are you? It’s good to see you.
I also want to thank the journalists, the staff and all the viewers and listeners of Voice of America. I have sat down for interviews with you from all the remote corners of the world. These interviews are always a pleasure.
Speaking of which, I understand that this speech is being broadcast on television, radio and your website, social media, in more than 40 languages.
Hats off to the translators. I really don’t know how I was able to get my speech translated into Uzbek so quickly? This man or woman should get a bonus. Bob.
It’s great to have this opportunity. I’ve been following the work of Voice of America for decades.
As Bob just mentioned, I started my career as an Army officer, patrolling the Iron Curtain – the frontier of freedom – in the 1980s.
I couldn’t get into East Germany. I was serving in a town called Bindra. West Germans were not allowed to enter East Germany either. But your broadcasts, the Voice of America broadcasts, could.
Millions of men and women, whose names we will never know, listened to your broadcasts, often at personal risk. Their government runs nothing but lies and propaganda. But Voice of America listeners want the truth, and that’s what you give them.
The first Voice of America broadcast in 1942 that Bob mentioned began with “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” while making this assurance, originally, “There is good news and there is bad news, and we will tell you the real news.”
I love that phrase. I always said to my son, – and I’ve told this story before – when he was growing up, I said, “Work hard, keep your faith, and tell the truth.” He basically heeded my advice, and I know that it has been good for him and for many of you.
Your role at Voice of America is unambiguous: to be “accurate, objective and comprehensive” and to “represent America.
The mission of the U.S. Global Media Directorate is to “promote interaction and connection among people around the globe and to provide information in support of freedom and democracy.
This is because the expansion of freedom and democracy has always been the purpose of the United States. You are the voice of American exceptionalism. You should be proud of that. Now more than ever, the world needs the clarion call of freedom from the voice of America. I hear it everywhere I go. That’s what I want to talk about today.
I talk about American exceptionalism to my listeners anytime, anywhere, because it’s true, because it matters.
America is wonderful and great, and anyone who really understands what we were founded on understands that. Michael and Bob have made it their life’s work to study this history.
Many of you have made it your life’s work, too. That’s why you work here at Voice of America.
We are truly the first nation founded on the core belief that all people are born with certain inalienable rights and that government was created to guarantee those natural rights.
We have always strived to be a more perfect union. Of course we are not always right. So we need to be both proud and humbled by our past and our present. We need the truth.
Yet it is abundantly clear that when Americans united around our founding values, whether in Philadelphia, at Gettysburg, in Seneca Falls, or during Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, we delivered on our founding promises time and time again.
Now, our opponents are trying to make a different claim.
When the Chinese Communist Party attempted to use the tragic death of George Floyd to claim the seeming superiority of their authoritarian system over ours, I issued a statement that included the following passage.
“At the best of times, the People’s Republic of China was brutally pursuing communism. And in the midst of the most difficult challenges, the United States still guarantees freedom.”
There is no moral equivalence. It is self-evidently true.
It is not fake news that you broadcast this: this is the greatest nation in the history of the world, the greatest nation that human civilization has ever heard of.
Admittedly, I do not say this to ignore our shortcomings. Rather, on the contrary, it is an acknowledgement of those flaws.
However, this is not the American evil, focusing on all the things that are wrong with our great nation. This is the voice of America. This is definitely not the place to give platforms to authoritarian regimes like Beijing or Tehran.
Your mission is to promote democracy, freedom and American values around the world. This is a U.S. taxpayer-funded institution that is designed to do exactly that.
Indeed, this is what sets Voice of America apart from platforms like MSNBC and Fox News.
You are able to give a voice to the voiceless in the dark corners of the world.
You are the voice of America’s struggle.
You are the voice of American exceptionalism.
You are the pointman of freedom.
Now, like many government agencies since the end of the Cold War, our international broadcasters have lost their way. Many of you know this well.
I’m sure there are many reasons for this.
The Soviet Union collapsed. The Berlin Wall came down. Names like bin Laden, Qaddawi and al-Baghdadi used to be unknown to the world.
In fact, many people wrote that history had ended. We have let security procedures slacken, and the Voice of America has lost its adherence to its founding mission.
Its broadcasts have become less and less about telling the truth about America and more and more about disparaging it.
In 2013, one of my predecessors called the Broadcasting Board of Governors “effectively dead in name only.
That’s why Congress created the position of CEO of the U.S. Global Media Authority on a bipartisan basis.
And that’s why I’m here today.
I’ve seen reports that Voice of America employees don’t want me to speak here today. I’m sure that’s a very small minority.
They don’t want the voices of American diplomats on Voice of America.
Think about that for a moment.
Think about the fact that we are all part of a government agency with obligations and responsibilities that are more noble, greater and more important than each of us individually. But this censorship instinct is dangerous and morally wrong. In fact, it is a violation of your legally mandated duties as the Voice of America.
Censorship, awakening and political correctness all point in one direction – authoritarianism cloaked in moral righteousness.
It’s similar to what we see today on Twitter and Facebook and Apple and too many college campuses.
This is not us. This is not us as Americans. It’s also not what the Voice of America should be.
It’s time to let the awakening slumber. (This is the original Voice of America translation) ,
It’s time that we simply put woke-ism to sleep. Some translate woke-ism as “wake-ism,” so it seems that the passage should be translated as: It’s time that we simply put woke-ism to sleep. (WOK)
In the article “WOKEISM —- The New Religion of the West” it is stated that
There is a new religion. It is surging like a tidal wave into every aspect of Western culture, shaping and redefining society. This religion pretends to be compassionate and righteous, but inside it is an evil ideology that is at odds with Western values and the Christian worldview. This movement, did not start in Minneapolis on May 25 when George Freud was murdered. This event became a watershed moment in an ideology that has been evolving for decades. If left unchecked, this new religion could lead to the complete disintegration of Western culture.
The contrast shows that Voice of America’s translation has not just changed, but even reversed, the meaning of Pompeo’s original words]
You guys can lead the way. You all know how to do it, and that’s why you’re here. The Voice of America blossomed into a new dawn.
What was not clear to the American public was that when Michael took over, some 1,500 employees – almost 40 percent of the entire workforce – had not been properly vetted for security, including many with high-level security clearance.
The Voice of America rubber-stamped J-1 visas for foreign nationals, including some from communist China. We shouldn’t do that.
We have many Mandarin Chinese speakers in the United States and we are building, training, teaching and educating more loyal patriots, some of whom are Chinese-Americans and very good.
The team in the Trump administration is working hard to address these national security threats. We want to properly vet employees. We want to return Voice of America to its mission of reporting the truth without bias. We want to depoliticize what’s happening here. It’s too important to the American people and to the world. Bringing this organization back to its charter and mission to spread the message of freedom, democracy and American exceptionalism.
It’s not about politicizing these institutions. We are trying to abstract away from politics.
This is a very good story for anyone who wants to write a news feature.
As Secretary of State, I tell you all this because I have the best wishes for the people here and for this organization, because you play a vital role in helping America shine a light on the darkest places with the power that only America can muster.
Governments like China (Communist), Iran, North Korea, they don’t respect the universal dignity of every human being like the United States does. Indeed, that is what America was founded on.
Those regimes hate everything our country stands for.
We, — we know that government exists to serve the people.
They, – they believe that the people exist to serve the government.
The work of the Voice of America is critical. As I said before, you are the pointman of freedom. Every week, 278 million people listen to the Voice of America in 47 languages.
There are Iranians who are tuning in to you, wondering if they will one day be free from the shackles of Islamism.
There are Moldovans and Ukrainians who want real reporting, not Russian disinformation and propaganda.
There are Chinese citizens who are fed up with a regime that has done nothing but inflict violence on them since 1949.
There are Venezuelans who want to know the truth about the corruption of the Maduro regime.
There are oppressed people around the globe who still look to the United States for hope.
Now, I know that many of you, especially those of you overseas, continue and complete the heroic work. Thank you.
I want to commend the Voice of America’s Hong Kong reporting team for getting the job done despite the political intimidation, harassment and attacks. I give you my highest praise. Well done!
You stood behind the barricades with the freedom fighters and told their stories. You have upheld the finest traditions of the Voice of America and continue to be the voice of American exceptionalism.
I would also like to pay tribute to the other members of the broadcast community who are here today and listening to me.
The only Uighur-language news service in the world is provided by Radio Free Asia.
To everyone who will listen – and indeed, some who won’t – you tell the truth about the atrocities that the Chinese Communist Party has inflicted on its own people in Xinjiang. Such atrocities are a stain on this century.
You have done so, even though the CCP has put at least six relatives of Radio Free Asia journalists in internment camps in Xinjiang and continues to threaten you and your families, simply because you did your job.
Your work takes courage.
Please continue to tell everyone who will listen what is happening in the toughest places in the world. The world looks forward to this, and America will be better for it.
Finally, before I answer some of Bob’s questions, I’d like to quote a phrase that shows why the mission of Voice of America is so critical. This quote comes from a long time ago.
It was said by George Washington. His original quote said, “The truth will eventually prevail if it works tirelessly to bring it out into the open.”
When America brings the truth to the world, we bring the light.
Don’t forget that. That’s what you are doing.
May God bless you all.
May God bless the Voice of America.
May God bless the United States of America. Thank you all. (Applause)
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