Voice of America Hit Piece on Donald Trump

during election

They all thought she was going to win

http://bbgwatch.com/bbgwatch/usagm-ceo-john-lansing-ignored-early-warnings-of-ads-targeting-americans/

U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO John Lansing, who had been appointed in 2015 during the Obama administration, had ignored early warnings of taxpayer-funded USAGM media entities such as the Voice of America (VOA) targeting Americans in violation of the Smith-Mundt Act.

Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), has issued a report on the investigation of some of the Smith-Mundt Act violations at USAGM under John Lansing’s watch.

USAGM CEO John Lansing, who has been in his position since 2015, had received warnings in private emails as well as through BBG Watch articles posted online where he could read them.

Similar warnings were sent to both Democratic and Republican members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) which had an oversight role and has now an advisory role after the agency changed its name earlier this year to U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett who was hired by Lansing also did not respond to similar early warnings sent to her e-mail address about questionable advertising and other abuses of journalistic standards by VOA.

BBG Watch has been pointing out that a significant segment of the VOA audience is in the United States, especially for VOA English online content. During the 2016 presidential election campaign, some VOA reporters and many VOA reports included one-sided attacks on Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in VOA coverage as well as in their personal Facebook and other social media posts. These serious violations of the VOA Charter have continued well after the 2016 elections and into Donald Trump’s presidency.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/02/01/its-long-past-time-for-leadership-change-at-us-agency-for-global-media/

In the CEO position, Pack would replace John F. Lansing, formerly of Scripps Networks, an Obama-era appointee, who has been running the U.S. Agency for Global Media (previously called the Broadcasting Board of Governors) since 2015.

In a last-ditch effort to save the jobs of Obama-era broadcasting officials late last year, Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has since left office, and Bob Menendez, D-N.J., introduced a legislative measure to gut the position of CEO of its power to hire and fire staff.

The legislation would protect—among others—Amanda Bennett, director of Voice of America, whose job would be endangered by a change of leadership. Several outraged Republican senators placed holds on the legislation, which died when the 115thh Congress adjourned.

Though foiled, this legislative maneuver showed the importance of getting President Donald Trump’s own appointee in place without further delay.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media is the government’s primary public diplomacy tool and is funded to the tune of $685 million by U.S. taxpayers. It dwarfs any other expenditure by the government on international outreach, including educational and cultural exchanges, embassy outreach, and American centers at foreign universities.

In the hands of left-leaning producers and directors, much of the broadcasting paid for by U.S. taxpayers resembles that of CNN more than anything else, both in its story selection and its anti-Trump bias.

Additionally, a number of scandals have erupted in recent years, calling into question management and professionalism. One example was the report in December by the House Foreign Affairs Committee detailing abuses by broadcasting staff in political postings on their social media pages.