Voice of America White House Reporter Reassigned After Questioning Pompeo

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the White House with family members in December 2020.

Evan Vucci/AP

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Evan Vucci/AP

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The new VOA director, Reilly, has said the service should tell America’s story to the world. Historically, VOA journalists have seen their mission as reflecting American values by reporting freely on political debate and even upheaval here to model how a free press operates and to provide coverage in countries where there is not a robust independent press.

«It is not fake news for you to broadcast that this is the greatest nation in the history of the world and the greatest nation civilization has ever known. I’m not saying this to ignore our faults, Pompeo said in his prepared remarks Monday. «But this isn’t the ‘Vice of America,’ focusing on everything that’s wrong with our great nation. It’s the ‘Voice of America.’ It certainly isn’t the place to give authoritarian regimes in Beijing or Tehran a platform.

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The White House had issued a blistering statement last spring, accusing Voice of America under previous leadership of posting Chinese propaganda on COVID-19 over what turned out to be material from the Associated Press. VOA’s then-senior leaders noted numerous stories debunking Chinese claims and offering textured coverage over the coronavirus in that country.

At a morning meeting on Tuesday, VOA journalists told editors they were outraged over Widakuswara’s reassignment over asking questions, according to numerous people with direct knowledge.

Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by NPR Media & Tech editor Emily Kopp. Because of NPR CEO John Lansing’s prior role as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, no senior news executive or corporate executive at NPR reviewed this story before it was published.