Muting of 'lie factory' VOA should have come earlier

By Li Yang | China Daily | Updated: 2025-03-25 07:42 MA XUEJING/CHINA DAILY The way in which Voice of America was muted recently, following the Donald Trump administration cutting its funding, might have been beyond the expectations of its employees. Founded in 1942, the international broadcasting state media network's targeted and primary audience is non-Americans outside the US borders, especially those living in countries without "press freedom". VOA continued to serve as a de facto propaganda tool of the US government after the end of the Cold War, and was invariably behind, along with some other US media outlets and internet companies, the "color revolutions" in different countries. Despite this, with the rise of the internet and social media that markedly diversify people's sources of information, the influence of such government- Particularly, after the series of failed "democracy experiments" trapped some countries, such as Afghanistan, in decades of chaos, even many keen followers of VOA have awakened to the fact it is not reporting for their interest but for the narrow ends of the US government in its geopolitical games. As Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference, that some US media outlets are seen that way can only be blamed on "a notorious track record in their China coverage".