Voice of America
-
VOA was broadcast from an array of antennas couple miles from my home for most of my life, but they shut that down 20 or 30 years ago. It's been whittled down repeatedly over the years. Suggestions to shut it down have been made repeatedly.
From Wiki:
Cuts and expansion
The Arabic Service was abolished in 2002 and replaced by a new radio service, called the Middle East Radio Network or Radio Sawa, with an initial budget of $22 million. Radio Sawa offered mostly Western and Middle Eastern popular songs with periodic brief news bulletins.The Arabic Service expanded to television with Alhurra on February 14, 2004 (and later to various social media and websites).[69] On May 16, 2004, the US government's international English language TV service Worldnet, became part of VOA as "VOA TV".
Radio programs in Russian ended in July 2008.[70] In September 2008, VOA eliminated the Hindi-language service after 53 years.[70] Broadcasts in Ukrainian, Serbian, Macedonian, and Bosnian also ended.[71] These reductions were part of American efforts to concentrate more resources to broadcast to the Muslim world.[70][71] In September 2010, VOA began radio broadcasts in Sudan. As U.S. interests in South Sudan grew, there was a desire to provide people with free information.[72]
In 2013, VOA ended foreign-language transmissions on shortwave and medium wave to Albania, Georgia, Iran, and Latin America, as well as English-language broadcasts to the Middle East and Afghanistan.[73] This was done due to budget cuts.[73] On July 1, 2014, VOA cut most of its English-language transmissions to Asia,[74] as well as shortwave transmissions in Azerbaijani, Bengali, Khmer, Kurdish, Lao, and Uzbek.[74] The following month, the Greek service ended after 72 years on air.[75][76]
Proposal by DOGE to shut down
In February 2025 the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) put forward a proposal for VoA and Radio Free Europe as two government-owned media agencies, to be considered for closure as a cost saving measure for the U.S. federal government.[77] The latest proposal comes after previously made suggestions by other government officials to shutter the agency.[78][79] -
Maybe President Trump just doesn't really like Kari Lake. LOL
First he appoints her to lead VOA and then shuts it down.
-
Guess who else is happy about the Voice of America getting cut?
Chinese state media has reacted gleefully to the Trump administration’s decision to slash government funding to media organisations such as Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA).
The Global Times, a daily English-language tabloid and Chinese Communist party mouthpiece, celebrated the cuts to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees broadcasters such as VOA and RFA.
-
Naturally, Russia is very happy to see it all go:
"Today is a holiday for me and my colleagues at RT and Sputnik. This is an awesome decision by Trump!” said Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed RT network and the Rossiya Segodnya news agency and a vocal cheerleader of Putin and the invasion of Ukraine. “We couldn’t shut them down, unfortunately, but America did so itself."
-
when Russia or China likes something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. When they don't like something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. Either way, those who care most about what other countries think, are those who hate Donald Trump. And that stands to reason.
-
when Russia or China likes something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. When they don't like something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. Either way, those who care most about what other countries think, are those who hate Donald Trump. And that stands to reason.
@Horace said in Voice of America:
when Russia or China likes something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. When they don't like something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. Either way, those who care most about what other countries think, are those who hate Donald Trump. And that stands to reason.
You say that as if it’s bad or useless to care about what other countries think. (To the extent that a country can think)
I’d rephrase it as, Trump doesn’t realize how America’s place in the world uniquely advantages America
-
@Horace said in Voice of America:
when Russia or China likes something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. When they don't like something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. Either way, those who care most about what other countries think, are those who hate Donald Trump. And that stands to reason.
You say that as if it’s bad or useless to care about what other countries think. (To the extent that a country can think)
I’d rephrase it as, Trump doesn’t realize how America’s place in the world uniquely advantages America
@xenon said in Voice of America:
@Horace said in Voice of America:
when Russia or China likes something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. When they don't like something Trump does, it's proof that Trump is bad. Either way, those who care most about what other countries think, are those who hate Donald Trump. And that stands to reason.
You say that as if it’s bad or useless to care about what other countries think. (To the extent that a country can think)
I’d rephrase it as, Trump doesn’t realize how America’s place in the world uniquely advantages America
Economically, sure. Reports of the rest of the world being very disappointed in our moral standing, on the other hand, and how meaningful that is, well, the alleged importance of that is really convenient for certain rhetorical points, and that's about all I'll give it.
-
I think it matters in the very long run - the same way it matters if we have baseline morals across society within a country.
@xenon said in Voice of America:
I think it matters in the very long run - the same way it matters if we have baseline morals across society within a country.
Agree.
-
You know, I go to work every day, just as I have for the last 36 years. I don't need people telling me how to behave of an evening. I like a beer and a bit of rhythmic music. I've been known to use naughty words.
The Puritans can suck my dick.
-
You know, I go to work every day, just as I have for the last 36 years. I don't need people telling me how to behave of an evening. I like a beer and a bit of rhythmic music. I've been known to use naughty words.
The Puritans can suck my dick.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Voice of America:
You know, I go to work every day, just as I have for the last 36 years. I don't need people telling me how to behave of an evening. I like a beer and a bit of rhythmic music. I've been known to use naughty words.
The Puritans can suck my dick.
First, they'd have to find it. 🫣
-
I think having a clear set of ideals - at a personal, family, community, country level - is desirable.
It’s really hard to come up with them yourself, and even if you do it’s hard to get others to agree to them.
I don’t like Trump because he’s tearing down norms left, right and center. They can’t be rebuilt. I don’t see much of an upside to this from him that we wouldn’t have gotten from a vanilla republican.
Living up to values is a separate topic from having them. You could say that politicians are phony… but I see a phony politician with high ideals as better than a genuine bastard.
-
I think having a clear set of ideals - at a personal, family, community, country level - is desirable.
It’s really hard to come up with them yourself, and even if you do it’s hard to get others to agree to them.
I don’t like Trump because he’s tearing down norms left, right and center. They can’t be rebuilt. I don’t see much of an upside to this from him that we wouldn’t have gotten from a vanilla republican.
Living up to values is a separate topic from having them. You could say that politicians are phony… but I see a phony politician with high ideals as better than a genuine bastard.
@xenon said in Voice of America:
I think having a clear set of ideals - at a personal, family, community, country level - is desirable.
It’s really hard to come up with them yourself, and even if you do it’s hard to get others to agree to them.
I don’t like Trump because he’s tearing down norms left, right and center. They can’t be rebuilt. I don’t see much of an upside to this from him that we wouldn’t have gotten from a vanilla republican.
Living up to values is a separate topic from having them. You could say that politicians are phony… but I see a phony politician with high ideals as better than a genuine bastard.
A small truth for you...An unelected politician has very, very little actual power.
Name me a GOP politician you think could have effectively challenged Trump?
