'Discarded like a dirty rag': Chinese state media hails Trump's cuts to Voice of America
www.bbc.com
State newspaper gloated that the network has "now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag".

Summary

China’s state media praised Trump’s decision to cut funding for Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), calling them “propaganda” outlets.

The move put 1,300 VOA staff on leave and drew criticism from press freedom advocates, who warn it benefits authoritarian regimes.

VOA and RFA have long reported on human rights abuses in China, North Korea, and other restricted regions.

RFA’s CEO condemned the cuts as a “reward to dictators,” while the Czech Republic has asked the EU for support to keep Radio Free Europe running.

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
          01·
          3 days ago

          state sponsored propaganda established to erode all communist ideas in order to erode authoritarian communism (along the way propping up classic fascism, a side mission of creating VoA). the problem is that VoA wasn’t authoritarian enough for the new american government’s fascist stance. not enough people are realizing the dissolution of VoA is not something for us anti-authoritarians to celebrate because what’s coming to replace it will be much worse

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            11·
            2 days ago

            Pretty sure they’re gonna replace it with some privatized bullshit, which will be “worse” but also way less effective because it’ll be cost-cut to shit.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 days ago

    Psst, this is good actually. Even if he’s doing it for the wrong reasons, disrupting CIA operations is a net win.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
      0·
      2 days ago

      What isn’t good is the end of billions in aid to stop people from starving and provide medical aid to underdeveloped areas, which is something real socialists generally support.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
          0·
          2 days ago

          Good news!

          They got privatized by Reaganites!

          They’ll still be in operation! So it’s just the charity and “genuine good will” stuff America won’t be doing anymore.

          • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
            0·
            2 days ago

            What are you even talking about? Are you saying that the US government doing evil is better than EvilCorp doing it? Or are you saying that the government can’t do good without also doing evil?

              • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
                1·
                2 days ago

                You’re the goofy one if you think that public vs private propaganda is a binary phenomenon, or that you can’t have aid without interference. Of course I’d prefer pure aid, but Trump would be canceling that too! I’m just also happy he’s undermining US Intel ops, because yes absolutely, America bad.

  • TheThrillOfTime@lemmy.ml
    1·
    3 days ago

    Pretty crazy the US is dismantling it’s apparatus for controlling the world by itself. The Soviet Union could only dream of this month.

    • barneypiccolo@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      A new world order is being installed in which Sociopathic Oligarchs run the world, instead of nations, and governments do their bidding.

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        And yet there are so few of them… and 8 billion of us.

        Why should we let them rule us?

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
    11·
    2 days ago

    Of course China and Russia is celebrating this. They simply don’t like radio stations that tell their subjects the truth (Well, at least a kind of truth that is closer to reality than their own media).

        • Ferrous@lemmy.mlEnglish
          11·
          2 days ago

          Previously, the CIA themselves.

          “The Committee for a Free Asia’ in 1951, sanctioned by the National Security Council and with the knowledge of Congressional Oversight Committees, supported by covert indirect CIA funding, the Committee had been created to help find ways to contain and expand private U.S. contact and communication with people of Asia following the establishment of Communist regimes in China and North Korea. The emphasis was on a private instrumentality that would be privately governed and have the freedom and flexibility to do things the government would like to see done but which it chose not to do or could not do directly.”

          "The question has been asked: ‘Why a Radio Free Asia?’ It is proposed to answer that question in terms of our objectives in the Far East and the effectiveness of radio in accomplishing them … Apart from its covert propaganda usefulness to the United States, RFA proposes to speak to Asia in the vernacular of Asia and about the things with which Asians are most concerned. It proposes to assist and encourage Asians in fighting Communism and establishing or recovering their dependence by spreading the truth in Asia about Asians.

          https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/cia-and-committee-free-asia-under-project-dtpillar