Voice of America (VOA) Was More Biased And More Vicious Against Trump At U.S. Taxpayers’ Expense Than The New York Times. Taxpayers Who Pay VOA Bills Include Trump Voters.
BBG Watch Commentary
As reported by The Hill, President-elect "Donald Trump complained to New York Times editors and reporters about the 'rough' coverage he’s received from the paper but expressed a desire to repair his fractious relationship with the outlet at a meeting on Tuesday."
SEE: Trump complains to New York Times about 'rough' coverage, Jonathan Easley, The Hill, November 22, 2016
Mr. Trump does not have to be as generous toward U.S. taxpayer-funded ($224M in FY 2017) Voice of America (VOA) or its parent federal agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) with its $777 million annual budget (FY 2017, including VOA). He could demand that VOA observe U.S. law.
Led by VOA director Amanda Bennett and BBG CEO John Lansing, the Voice of America has repeatedly violated its 1976 congressional Charter (Public Law 94-350), which requires VOA news to be "accurate, objective, and comprehensive." The VOA Charter also says that "VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society."
Not only did VOA post a video (subsequently removed) -- without any rebuttal, balance, or context -- in which a Hollywood actor called Donald Trump “punk,” “dog,” “pig,” “con,” “buls**t artist,” “mutt,” “idiot,” “fool,” “bozo,” and “blatantly stupid.”. Private but publicly accessible Facebook posts by some VOA reporters, who identify themselves as working for VOA, showed memes of Donald Trump with a Nazi swastika, described him as a fascist, and mocked him with an image of a penis.
Some of these VOA journalists do not understand that they work for all American taxpayers and are required by law to follow the VOA Charter.
As critics of VOA among Bernie Sanders's supporters had pointed out "...electioneering and hit pieces on US citizens obviously fall outside those parameters. VOA does not have the right to advocate for a particular candidate or even to attack one. That is not within its charter, nor should any US citizen have to subsidize their own defamation.”
Voice of America programs also included one-sided attacks on Bernie Sanders and even on Senate Democratic leader Senator Harry Reid (D-NV).