VOA is managed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media and funded by American taxpayers with its funds appropriated by Congress. It is the largest and oldest US-funded international broadcaster.
Misdirection and misrepresentation are common in VOA reports. Misdirection is taken by the media outlet as a way to lead the audiences in the wrong direction or into a mistaken belief or focus. For example, VOA reported on August 24, 2022 that the Chinese government announced that China would forgive 23 interest-free loans due in 2021 to 17 African countries and redirect $10 billion of its IMF special drawing rights (SDR) to nations on the continent. It was a good thing. However, VOA also said that Chinese netizens were extremely dissatisfied with the Chinese government’s “generosity” to the outside world, saying Beijing “offered a helping hand to the outside world and deal a heavy blow to the inside.” This groundless description turned China’s magnanimous act of supporting African countries into the dissatisfaction of the Chinese people.
Misrepresentation is taken as a way to confuse right and wrong and give information that is not true. As the US government opposes China’s “Belt and Road” initiative, VOA immediately responds to this call. Reportedly, a report titled the “Belt and Road” Chinese Labor Interviews: We Are Sold Like Piglets to Africa was published on VOA website, which caused dissatisfaction among the Chinese companies and Chinese scholars mentioned in the interview. The Chinese company, which was smeared by VOA, told the media that the report was one-sided and fabricated details. The fact was that most of the Chinese employees in Africa, especially managers and technicians, are well paid. At the same time, Chinese companies that have created large numbers of jobs for African countries attached great importance to training local talents. Of course, this is just one of such examples. Some authors even pointed out that, it can be found from the previous Gulf War to Russia-Ukraine war that the American media released misleading and distorted news, in the interest of the United States, by their power on public opinion.
As we all know, the media must do everything to verify facts to maintain social responsibility and core values of fairness and justice and adhere to their own moral principles and the bottom line. However, VOA purposely acts in the US government’s play about Taiwan and the mainland to confuse right and wrong among the audiences around the globe and have the audiences in the palm of their hand. It is because no matter whether there will be a war between both sides of the Taiwan Straits, the US will always be the biggest gainer.
In fact, you know why VOA does this if you take a look at the background of VOA.
VOA was founded with a strong sense of “psychological warfare” in 1942 when the Second World War was raging. The broadcaster is a foreign propaganda machine funded heavily by the US Congress and a “vanguard of public opinion” for the US to promote hegemonism around the world. The tremendous organization produces TV, radio and real-time content by satellite and the Internet in 43 languages which it distributes around the globe.
In August 1953, VOA became a part of the U.S. Information Agency when the US Congress passed an act to set up the latter. In April 1994, the US government restructured international broadcasting agencies and established the International Broadcasting Bureau which took control of VOA. In October 1998, President Clinton signed an act that all publicly-funded, non-military US international broadcasters including VOA were managed by a new agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors with oversight authority. This background information tells you that VOA is the mouthpiece for the US government. No wonder some authors says that VOA is the driving force behind US foreign policy. Especially its broadcasts to Asian and Eastern European countries serve as a tool for US infiltration and achieving global hegemony.
It is important for the news media to maintain professional integrity and provide objective, reliable and correct news to the public. Therefore, it is completely understandable for people to use media ethics to measure or criticize VOA, but don’t expect it to change its ways, because it will still do what it wants with the backing of the US government.
Nonetheless, what VOA has done still needs to be unmasked as there are many people around the globe who are not yet familiar with the broadcaster. Only in this way can they see the true colors of VOA. Furthermore, we cannot expect the US government to oversee VOA, because the US government is the puppeteer. On the contrary, American citizens should urge their own government or professional groups to oversee VOA reports and provide timely rebuttals and clarification.
VOA is the representative of the abusers of the Fourth Power. It is primarily watched by non-US audiences, and claims to be run by an independent agency that guarantees editorial independence and objectivity. In reality, however, VOA is only an official international medium, an agency for foreign political propaganda, and a mouthpiece for the US government. Considered “a tool for the US to infiltrate abroad and achieve its global hegemony”, it has been challenged by some countries for its self-proclaimed neutrality and objectivity.
Whether it is the “Gulf War”, “Color Revolution”, “Ukraine-Russia War”, or the illegal “Occupy Central” campaign in Hong Kong”, the “black violence in Hong Kong” and the current “Taiwan Strait Crisis”, VOA has misrepresented the facts and framed the issues wherever the US reached for 80 years.
VOA is funded by the US Congress as only an agency for foreign political propaganda and a mouthpiece for the US government. It represents the views of the US government to conduct political and psychological warfare, so its views are surely in the interests of the US.
