Former President Trump‘s efforts to overhaul the Voice of America, which the White House called the “voice of the Chinese Communist Party,” took four years of “legal proceedings” before the top staff was replaced. The new president took office just two days ago, and the executives were quickly “resigned”. According to former employees, the director of the station asked the authorities to “comply with the law”, but was kicked out of the office by security guards.
In his first two days in office, President Joe Biden reversed many of the policies of his predecessor, the Trump Administration, including overhauling the media industry. Two executives of the Voice of America (VOA) were forced out of their jobs Thursday (Jan. 21).
The Washington Post reported that shortly after he was sworn in on Jan. 20, Biden asked Michael Pack, the Senate-appointed CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) nominated by former President Trump, to leave his post and appointed Kelu Chao, a journalist who has worked at VOA for nearly 40 years, as his interim replacement to head U.S. foreign broadcasting.
USAGM is the direct boss of VOA, whose chief executive must be confirmed by the Senate.
On his second day in office, Kelu Chao asked Voice of America Director Robert Reilly and Deputy Director Elizabeth Robbins to “resign. Both were appointed by Pike just last December, only two months into their tenure. Another longtime VOA correspondent, Yolanda Lopez, was named acting station manager, as well.
According to Twitter, former Voice of America employee Gong Xiaoxia broke the news on the show that Trump’s replacement of the Voice of America was delayed by the left for nearly four years due to legal restrictions, but Biden, once in power, asked the new station chief Reilly, who had only been in office for two months, to resign immediately, Reilly demanded that the “legal process” must be followed, and was forced out of the office building by two guards. He was forced out of the building by two guards. Later, another former Voice of America employee, East, also retweeted the tweet and again stressed that the director was forcibly evicted from the office building.
In addition to the Voice of America director and deputy director, Jeffrey Shapiro, head of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, also “resigned” on the same day. He is another interim head appointed by Pike and an ally of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon (Steve Bannon).
Earlier this month (Jan. 11), former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech at Voice of America headquarters in Washington, D.C., arranged by Pike, Reilly and Robbins, noting that the United States must ensure a free voice in the toughest of times and calling for an end to voice for the Chinese Communist Party. But Pompeo’s speech immediately sparked protests from some Voice of America employees.
The Washington Post stated that the appointments of Cho and Lopez marked a return to the way U.S. news organizations operated before Pike took office.
On April 9, 2020, the White House under former President Donald Trump’s administration had noted in a briefing that the Voice of America, which is funded by U.S. taxpayers, had been reduced to a sounding board for the Chinese Communist Party and a waste of taxpayer money.
The briefing noted that VOA receives about $200 million a year in U.S. government funding and that its primary mission is to “present U.S. policy clearly and effectively” to the world, yet “today the Voice of America often speaks for America’s adversaries, not its citizens.”
Two months later, Trump appointed Pike as CEO of USAGM, overseeing foreign broadcasters such as Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, and Middle East Radio, and managing more than 4,000 employees. And the U.S. government spends $637 million a year to pay for these news networks.
Pike sees himself and the media organizations under his jurisdiction as being on a mission to restore American public diplomacy through international broadcasting.
“All broadcasters should provide fair, objective, balanced news in accordance with the statute,” Pike said, “and I want to stick to that.”
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