(C) Tennessee Lookout
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East Tennessee congressman seeks to defund U.S. agency based on a lie • Tennessee Lookout [1]
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Date: 2024-07-30
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Knoxville Republican, bizarrely bragged in his July newsletter about introducing a budget amendment that would get rid of funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media. You may not have heard of that obscure agency title, but it is the administrative hub for such important things as Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Don’t be misled by the use of the word radio in one title. These global media outlets do all forms of audio and video media, including hosting many online-based news sites. VOA seeks to be objective and presents America to the rest of the world in many languages and many forms. RFE/RL acquires news from within heavily-censored nations and uses many media forms to get that information to people within those nations, serving 23 countries and 27 languages. These are important global media. Accuracy and neutrality are key to their credibility and thus to their success.
It’s a tough and dangerous challenge. RFE/RL journalists have died doing their jobs. Currently RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who holds dual Russian-American citizenship, is being held in Russia.
So, why would Burchett want to harm those agencies? It turns out to be petty Trumpian revenge based on a series of lies. Burchett’s newsletter links to his reasons, and he claimed the Agency for Global Media failed to vet staff. He wrote, “[O]ne of its senior executives, Setareh Sieg, was fired by the Trump administration then promptly rehired under the Biden administration despite lying on her resume, misusing taxpayer funds, and engaging in workplace misconduct.”
Nope. Sieg was VOA Persian Director when Trump appointee Michael Pack sacked people not deemed willing enough to endanger their credibility by crafting and distributing more pro-Trump messages.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Office of Labor and Human Relations looked into the Sieg matter and found all of the allegations to be unsubstantiated. Sieg had the claimed degree, all proper procedures were used with taxpayer funds, and none of the claims held up to close inspection. The Government Accountability Project hailed Sieg as a whistleblower, one who since has moved on to be VOA’s Director of Program Review and Special Assistant to the Director of Programming.
Burchett, however, continues to flog this nonsense. In the transcript and video of a July 9 House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, we find Burchett repeatedly interrupting Amanda Bennett, current CEO of the U. S. Agency for Global Media. He refused to accept her points raised, and retreated to the past disproven Republican claims.
The previous name for the Agency for Global Media was the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and a prominent Knoxville person has served on that board. Victor Ashe was a state legislator, mayor of Knoxville for sixteen years, and former U. S. ambassador to Poland. Ashe’s tenure on that board was one where he often sought reform, but opposed abolishment.
I called Ashe to get his thoughts on Burchett’s move to defund the agency. Ashe said it was a “continuation of bizarre positions he has taken that he doesn’t understand.”
“The only person that he makes happy with this is Vladimir Putin,” Ashe said. He further blasted Burchett’s actions as “sad, and discouraging, and fundamentally wrong. He doesn’t recognize his own lack of information.” Ashe views a lot of recent Burchett actions as a dangerous and unworkable move toward isolationism.
RFE/RL is based in Prague, Czech Republic, where I taught a course this summer. My students and I visited this month and saw firsthand the organization’s good work. RFE/RL President Stephen Capus (in the same hearing where Burchett was rude and dismissive) spoke to the devastating effect of budget cuts. “The work right now is vital. We are, without a doubt, targeted by Russia, by Belarus, by Iran, by China, you name it, and if we leave the playing field, if you will, if we leave that space to those countries and their propaganda and attempts to sway public opinion, we’re giving them that terrain to themselves,” he said.
Burchett’s partisan amendment regarding the State Department and the Agency for Global Media largely was a piece of political theater, passing the House 212-200, but it was not a serious matter for the Senate. The same could be said for his effort to defund the Office of the Special Climate Envoy which he bragged about in the same newsletter (because who needs to address climate change, anyhow?).
Our current congressional majority, exemplified by Burchett, appears vindictive, ill informed, and lacking serious purpose.
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