Pompeo made comments personally to a VOA team command hearing, despite the Covid pandemic, urging them to report that “this is the largest nation the world has ever known.” Pompeo did not mention the pandemic, the insurrectional violence that rocked the Capitol last week, leaving five dead, or President Donald Trump’s role in encouraging chaos.
The speech was broadcast live across the world on VOA channels in more than 40 languages in what the Government Accountability Project, a group representing VOA whistleblowers, called “a violation of the law, rule and policy”. No questions were allowed after the comments or brief conversation on stage with VOA director Robert Reilly, who followed, giving Pompeo a chance to tout Trump’s administration policies without control.
The speech raised concerns that Michael Pack, appointed by Trump to lead the United States Agency for Global Media, which controls the VOA stock exchange lanyards and other services, is intent on reducing them to government spokesmen, a step that many say would undermine the credibility and integrity of media operations under the umbrella of the USAGM.
The VOA team was informed that the speech would be about “the importance of VOA and the challenges that the United States faces in the world today”, according to the GAP letter sent to Pack and Reilly on January 8.
Pompeo took a different view on Monday, insisting that “his mission is to promote democracy, freedom and American values in the world”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he argued that VOA “lost its commitment to its founding mission. Its broadcasts became less about telling the truth about America, and often about demeaning America”.
“It is not false news for you to disclose that this is the largest nation the world has ever known. I am not saying to ignore our faults. Acknowledge them,” said Pompeo. “But this is not the ‘Vice of America’, focusing on everything that is wrong with our great nation. It is certainly not the place to give a platform to authoritarian regimes in Beijing or Tehran.”
Pompeo also said it was “morally wrong” for the VOA team to oppose his speech, using the whistleblower’s denunciation as an excuse to launch a cultural war against journalists listening to him in the auditorium.
“We are all parts of institutions with greater duties and responsibilities than any of us. And that kind of censorship instinct is dangerous. It is morally wrong. And it is against your mandate,” said Pompeo. Minutes after appearing to suggest that VOA journalists shift their coverage from the U.S. to more positive news, Pompeo said: “censorship, wokeness, politically correct, everything points in one direction – authoritarianism, disguised as moral rectitude. It’s similar to what we” I see it on Twitter, Facebook, Apple and many college campuses. “
David Kligerman, the USAGM general counsel until he was allegedly expelled by Pack last month, said that Pompeo’s reprimands to VOA journalists betray a fundamental misunderstanding of the agency’s mission and play into the hands of authoritarian countries like China, that he criticized in his speech.
The secretary’s claims that VOA has “a culture of censorship, wokeness, politically correct in the wake of stories that Pompeo perceives as unfavorable, are unfortunately consistent with a greater attack on the press that we have seen by this administration,” said Kligerman. “It is a dangerous trope, especially for the Secretary of State, to transmit to the public in non-free countries, such as China, Iran and Russia, which we serve – that journalists should follow the party’s line. It is also fundamental to misunderstand the Agency’s mission. , as set out in the Agency’s authorization status. “
Pack’s actions have attracted the scrutiny of lawmakers on both sides of the corridor and legal actions by affected individuals. In a notable First Amendment case last month, a federal judge ruled that Pack and his team are prohibited from interfering in the newsroom.
And last month, the federal supervisory board of the Special Council discovered what it called “a substantial probability of a breach” at the agency and ordered Pack to order an investigation.