Voice of America journalists speak out after Trump administration shuts down network
Republican Congresswoman Young Kim of California discusses the closure of Voice of America with 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. She is one of the few Republicans who would like to see VOA reinstated. ‘When we are in an information war and we stop broadcasting into those repressive governments and into repressive societies, they're gonna, they are not gonna hear the truth,’ Rep. Kim says. ‘Why are we ceding our soft power that helps us to stay as a free world leader?’
60 Minutes
As of last week, the Voice of America is silent. The storied broadcaster was launched in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, but two weeks ago president Donald Trump usurped Congress' authority and signed an executive order effectively shutting down the taxpayer funded broadcaster for what the White House calls "radical propaganda." Friday, a federal judge put any further actions by the administration on hold. Over the decades VOA has projected American values globally, and for hundreds of millions it was the place to find fact-based news about America and the world in their own languages. It all came crashing down in a single day.
Steve Herman: When I heard that 1,300 of my colleagues had been suspended immediately with pay in an email saying that they couldn't do any more work, couldn't go into the building, I knew at that point the Voice of America was gonna die very quickly.
Steve Herman is chief national correspondent for Voice of America and perhaps its best-known journalist. Americans may not recognize him since VOA is prohibited by law from broadcasting in the United States.
Steve Herman: People say, "Oh, international broadcasting, it's archaic, it's obsolete." Why are the Chinese spending so much money and, and broadcasting in dozens of languages over radio and setting up all these TV services? You know, are they wasting their money? I don't think so. VOA is probably the best bang for our buck that we have in terms of public diplomacy.
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