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VOA Director Steps Aside Amid White House Criticism

Brian Padden

   WASHINGTON - Voice of America's leader for four years, Amanda
   Bennett,resignedMonday after defendingtheU.S. taxpayer-funded news
   organization's journalistic independence against attacks from the White
   Housethat VOAspread Chinese propaganda.

   In a farewell message to staff, Bennett and her deputy, Sandy Sugawara,
   who also resigned, avoided the issue of tensions with the Trump
   administration. Instead, the two wrote that Michael Pack, a Trump
   appointee recently confirmed to lead VOA's parent agency, has "the
   right toreplace us" and that it was now time to leave.

   "Nothing about you, your passion, your mission or your integrity
   changes," they wrote. "Michael Pack swore before Congress to respect
   and honor the firewall that guarantees V.O.A.'s independence, which in
   turn plays the single most important role in the stunning trust our
   audiences around the world have in us."

   The question of VOA's independence -- and worries that the
   administration might reshape government news agencies into apublic
   relationstool Â-- rose to the forefront in recent months as the
   president pushed for action on Pack's stalled Senate confirmation.

   The VOA charter requires the agency's reports, which are aimed at
   foreign audiences in Russia, Iran, China and other countries where
   there is censorship and repression, to be "accurate, objective and
   comprehensive" and to "represent America, not any single segment of
   American society."

   White House offensive

   In April, the White House website accused VOA of regurgitating Chinese
   propaganda by posting a video about the reopening of Wuhan after the
   coronavirus epidemic subsided there. "V.O.A. too often speaks for
   America's adversaries -- not its citizens," it said.

   The president's social media manager, Dan Scavino, promoted the idea on
   Twitter, saying, "American taxpayers -- paying for China's very own
   propaganda, via the U.S. Government funded Voice of America!
   DISGRACE!!"

   No matter that the video was not by VOA butbythe Associated Press, or
   that statistics VOA cited--and the White House criticized--about
   China's coronavirus deaths were reported from Johns Hopkins University
   & Medicine and widely considered the most reliable tallies available.

   Bennett vigorously disputed the propaganda accusation and provided a
   list of VOA stories that challenged China, but Trump weighed in at a
   White House news conference.

   "If you hear what's coming out of the Voice of America, it's
   disgusting,"he said. "The things they say are disgusting toward our
   country. And Michael Pack would get in and do a great job."

   CDC blacklist

   On Sunday, VOA reported that the Centers for Disease Controland
   Prevention(CDC) had effectively blacklisted its journalists, according
   to an internal CDC memorandum that became public. Asitsrationale for
   the decision not to accept interview requests from VOA journalists, the
   CDC memo cited the White House website's accusations about China.

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