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What a hack. Complaining about dishonesty while being dishonest in their “analysis” of the history, purpose, and activities of USAGM. https://twitter.com/yashalevine/status/1273126916480999426
There are several factual & analytical errors in Yasha's "history." One is in their favor: VOA, before it was named VOA, started in '42 as a controlled propaganda project w tightly controlled scripts, only to shift to the news svc we recognize in late '45 when it moved to State.
Another factual error undermines an argument. The effort to abolish the board, eliminating the bipartisan firewall and centralizing control under a POTUS-nominated CEO continued aggressively by *after* the Nov '16 election (w pressure from Dem appointees).
Of course Yasha conveniently ignores the environment which led to establishing RFE and RL, and the relatively short-lived RFA (shuttered then recreated). Are we to pretend Russia's booting of State's (later USIA) libraries, shutting of exchanges, jamming, arrests meant nothing?
Yasha could point out that @AssociatedPress fought against Senate press gallery admitting @VOANews while accepting Ru's TASS for decades, but they don't know the history to make that argument, nor apparently about Sen Fulbright's args against VOA in '67. https://warontherocks.com/2017/01/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-war-for-public-opinion/
There is plenty to fault with US Gov's setup & running of RFE, RL, & even RIAS (whom Yasha doesn't care about because it wasn't aimed at Ru), & concerns about mgmt of VOA (& BBG/USAGM in general), but unlike Yasha's fav Ru, there are fixes & leaders don't fall off balconey's.
