White House slams Voice of America, VOA fights back

WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday launched an unusual attack on the congressionally funded Voice of America, the U.S. broadcaster that for decades has provided independent news reporting around the world. In a broadside directed against VOA’s coverage of the pandemic and China on Friday, an official White House publication accused it of using taxpayer money “to speak for authoritarian regimes” because it covered the lifting of the lockdown in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus first emerged. “Voice of America spends your money to speak for authoritarian regimes,” the White House said in its “1600 Daily” email summary of news and events. But, citing a VOA report from earlier this week on the lifting of travel restrictions and easing of the lockdown in Wuhan, the White House said that “VOA too often speaks for America’s adversaries — not its citizens.” It noted that VOA had also recently pointed out comments by Iran’s foreign minister critical of the U.S. Friday’s attack followed another barb directed at VOA on Thursday by White House social media director Dan Scavino, who branded VOA a “disgrace” in a tweet. “One of the big differences between publicly-funded independent media, like the Voice of America, and state-controlled media is that we are free to show all sides of an issue and are actually mandated to do so by law as stated in the VOA Charter,” director Amanda Bennett said in a lengthy statement that included links to numerous VOA stories highlighting shortcomings in China’s response to the virus.