When a coup takes place in other countries, we sometimes learn that news programming is taken off the air and replaced with patriotic music. I don’t know what kind of music has been playing on Voice of America since Saturday morning. What I do know is that dictators like Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping found it pleasing to their ears.
There is a danger at moments like this to breeze past stories such as the virtual shutdown of Voice of America because we knew it was coming anyway, and because there are more immediate matters with which to grapple, including illegal arrests and deportations. But the Trump White House’s shutdown of Voice of America, though not surprising, is nevertheless a moment worth paying careful attention to as the authoritarian regime headed by Donald Trump tightens its grip.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik, who reported extensively on Trump’s war against Voice of America during his first term, is back with the most detailed account of what happened on “Bloody Saturday.” More than 1,000 people suddenly found themselves out of work as the U.S. Agency for Global Media was essentially defunded, affecting Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting.
The agency has also ended contracts with international broadcasters that it funds, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Trump being Trump, there’s also this, which guarantees that there will be legal challenges in the days ahead:
The termination notices for grants for the funded networks, two of which were reviewed by NPR, carried the signature of Trump’s senior adviser Kari Lake, whom he placed at USAGM, not the agency’s acting chief executive. Lake does not appear in her current job to have the statutory authority to carry out that termination.
CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter quoted Ostap Yarysh, who had been a leading journalist at VOA’s Ukrainian service: “It’s unbelievable how something that has been the voice of American democracy and has endured 83 years of broadcasting — through WW2, the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a new imperialist war in Europe — can be silenced on a regular Saturday.”
Jon Allsop, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, wonders whether the future of Voice of America and its related services will become pure propaganda or if they will just go away altogether:
Trump, seemingly, has always envisioned a bluntly propagandistic role for the broadcasters; at least, that’s long been the fear. Now that he has actually moved against them, however, it isn’t quite clear what future role they’ll play or whether they’ll even be around to play it.
Admittedly, there is something a little odd about the government paying for news to be broadcast into countries that lack a free press and expecting that news to be regarded as independent journalism. But VOA enjoys a reputation for integrity and high standards, which no doubt is why Trump has targeted it for elimination.
Tariffs kill a newspaper
While Trump’s chaotic on-again, off-again tariffs are wreaking havoc with our retirement accounts, they’ve also resulted in the end for a daily newspaper in New York State.
The Cortland Standard, a family-owned daily, is shutting down in part because of Trump’s 25% tariff on goods from Canada, including newsprint, according to a story on the paper’s website. The 157-year-old paper was one of the five oldest family-owned newspapers in the U.S.
The Cortland Standard Printing Co. will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Seventeen employees have lost their jobs.
“I hoped this day would never come,” publisher and editor Evan C. Geibel was quoted as saying. “I’m so very grateful to my colleagues and the community for what they’ve done for me, my family and each other.”
Cortland, a city of about 17,000, is located in central New York, about halfway between Syracuse to the north and Binghamton to the south. It is also served by a digital news outlet called the Cortland Voice, which was founded in 2015.
Corruption in blue
On Saturday evening I wanted a break from Trump, so I read The Boston Globe’s Spotlight series on New Bedford’s corrupt police department. And now I have one more thing to be horrified about. It’s truly public service journalism at its finest.
In February, Anastasia E. Lennon of the The New Bedford Light reported that Police Chief Paul Oliveira would retire this May. Although he was praised by Mayor Jon Mitchell, Lennon observed that Oliveira’s tenure had been dogged by controversy over sexual harassment within the department as well as officer misconduct.
Now we know that Oliveira also knew the Globe package was in the works, and that he would soon face accusations that he and his force abused the use of confidential informants in drug investigations. We learn that Oliveira was even the subject of an investigation by the FBI, though that did not result in any charges.
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