Secretary of State Mike Pompeo exploded “wokeness” during a Monday speech in which he defended recent changes to the government-funded international station Voice of America, where a Trump-backed reform has drawn criticism in recent months.
Pompeo’s speech to the VOA team was broadcast live over the network, despite objections from some team members, who wrote a letter to VOA chief Michael Peck, arguing that the speech at the station’s headquarters would be tantamount to “propaganda” and would put those who attended during the pandemic coronavirus at risk.
In his comments, Pompeo said that VOA “lost its commitment to its founding mission” under previous administrations and switched to programs that were “often about demoting America”. He also addressed criticism from VOA officials, arguing that those who tried to prevent his speech from being broadcast live had a “dangerous” censorship instinct.
“Censorship, wokeness, politically correct, everything points in one direction – authoritarianism, disguised as moral rectitude,” said Pompeo. “It is similar to what we see on Twitter, Facebook, Apple and many college campuses. This is not who we are, as Americans. It is not what the Voice of America should be. It is time to wake up. Ism to sleep.”
The Trump administration has faced bipartisan criticism in recent months over the changes instituted by Michael Pack, a right-wing documentary maker named head of the United States Agency for Global Media, VOA’s parent company.
Critics say Pack replaced senior officials with loyal ones to Trump and forced a shift toward promoting U.S. foreign policy instead of independent journalism. In November, a federal judge ordered Pack to stop further personnel changes and attempts to intercede in editorial operations.
Pompeo argued that about 40 percent of VOA’s workforce had been “improperly assessed” before Pack’s term and that the Trump administration was “reorienting VOA back to its mission to report truth and impartiality”.
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“The Trump administration is not trying to politicize these institutions,” said Pompeo. “We are trying to depoliticize them.”
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to review Pack’s changes at the agency as soon as he takes office.
Pompeo’s speech marked his first public comments since pro-Trump protesters stormed the Capitol in response to lawmakers’ effort to certify Biden’s victory in the 2020 elections. Democrats and some Republicans accused Trump of instigating the riot.
Pompeo did not speak about the riot during his speech. In a statement last week, the secretary of state asked the authorities to “bring justice quickly” to the people who participated in the mutiny.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.