US state media could go silent – director
US state funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) has confirmed that it has lost federal funding for its global operations, after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order significantly scaling back the government agency that funds state-sponsored news outlets.
Signed on Friday, the executive order targeted the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees the state-owned Voice of America (VOA), along with state run RFE/RL, Radio Free Asia, and several other not-for-profit entities that are fully funded by the US budget.
“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement on Saturday. “The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker.”
While it is not immediately clear whether the outlet – widely viewed as a propaganda arm – would wind down its operations, Capus said, “without us, the nearly 50 million people in closed societies… won’t have access to the truth about America and the world.”
Trump has frequently criticized US-funded media outlets, including VOA, accusing them of bias. On Saturday, he once again blasted the “fake news” media, without singling out specific outlets, as “sick degenerates that have to start reporting the news correctly.”
Trump’s newly appointed USAGM special adviser, Kari Lake, said on Saturday that “the people’s trust in the 4th Estate is broken,” and “we have a lot more work to do” to rebuild it.
“While at USAGM, I vow to fully implement President Trump’s executive orders in his mission to reduce the size and scope of the federal government,” Lake added, urging employees to “please check your email immediately for more information.”
Elon Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), pushed for the complete shutdown of RFE/RL and VOA last month, labeling them “radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.” The two CIA-linked broadcasters were prominently used by Washington to counter Soviet influence in Europe during the Cold War, but “nobody listens to them anymore,” Musk said.
