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A reporter from the Voice of America during a rally by Iranian dissidents in New York City. (Photo: Ramin Talaie/Corbis via Getty Images)
'Wednesday Night Massacre': Trump's New Right-Wing Propaganda Chief Initiates Purge of US-Funded Media Outlets
"The Breitbart crowd may be getting a taxpayer-funded global platform."
Jun 18, 2020
President Donald Trump's newly-appointed head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media was criticized Thursday for enacting what one former employee called a "Wednesday night massacre"--firing several career officials at the agency which oversees government-funded news broadcasters around the world, including Voice of America.
Days after being confirmed to his position in a party-line vote, Michael Pack dismissed Bay Fang of Radio Free Asia; Jamie Fly of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Alberto M. Fernandez of Middle East Broadcasting Networks; Emilio Vazquez of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting; and Libby Liu of the Open Technology Fund.
"Trump wants a ministry of information that will spew out the party line. It's a dangerous moment for democracy."
--Brett Bruen, former White House director of global engagement
Liu was fired despite the fact that she had earlier announced her resignation, effective in July. The director and deputy director of Voice of America, Amanda Bennett and Sandra Sugawara, also resigned after Pack was confirmed.
Pack has already replaced several of the officials with Trump allies and political appointees, and is expected to name former Breitbart News writer Jeffrey Shapiro as the head of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.
Both Shapiro and Pack are close allies of Steve Bannon, Trump's former advisor who formerly worked as the executive chairman of Breitbart News. Pack, a right-wing filmmaker, made two documentary films with Bannon about nuclear power and the Iraq War.
Shapiro reportedly said in 2017 that he aimed to one day remake the USAGM as a "Bannon legacy," and in 2016 wrote an op-ed denying claims that Bannon is a white nationalist.
Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted that Pack's actions in his first days at the helm of the USAGM was "alarming."
"The Breitbart crowd may be getting a taxpayer-funded global platform," wrote Shaub.
The "Wednesday night massacre" came on the heels of numerous attacks from the president of Voice of America (VOA), which he claims broadcasted Iranian and Chinese propaganda, particularly regarding the coronavirus pandemic. In April, Trump said delays in Pack's confirmation hearings were preventing the administration from "managing" VOA.
Progressive critics have long considered VOA a vehicle for U.S. government propaganda overseas, promoting American-friendly coverage of world events while masquerading as an independent "voice." Still, the overt takeover by a Trump sycophant and political supporter has raised particular alarm.
As Jon Allsop wrote at Columbia Journalism Review on Wednesday, VOA and the other news organizations operating under the USAGM do not operate entirely independently of the federal government's interests.
"While VOA is mandated by Congress to do independent journalism and its leaders have sometimes sought to style it as a normal news organization, there's no getting around the fact that it was founded, during the Second World War, as a vehicle for American soft power, and never really abandoned that role," Allsop wrote.
However, he added, "Trump's very public attitude toward VOA is ample cause for concern," as the president could be aiming to use the broadcaster as a tool in his "fitful, moral-free approach to US foreign policy."
Nina Jankowicz of the nonpartisan Wilson Center expressed concern that as "cut-and-dry administration mouthpieces" VOA and its partner broadcasters will disappear as sources of news in parts of the world "where there otherwise might not be one."
\u201cThis is worrying on so many levels- but the biggest is that if these outlets become cut-and-dry administration mouthpieces, millions will lose a trustworthy, independent source of news where there otherwise might not be one.\u201d— Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1592446508
Pack's dismissal of the longtime officials--and his demand Wednesday to staffers that "Until further notice, no actions are to be taken, and no external communications are to be made, without explicit approval" of the new executives--could also eventually endanger people working for USAGM around the world.
\u201cIt will also endanger local staff working in dangerous environments. Many USAGM properties already are in authoritarians\u2019 crosshairs; this will give them further reason to target them.\u201d— Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1592446508
"Trump wants a ministry of information that will spew out the party line," Brett Bruen, director of global engagement under former President Barack Obama, told Asia Times. "It's a dangerous moment for democracy."
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President Donald Trump's newly-appointed head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media was criticized Thursday for enacting what one former employee called a "Wednesday night massacre"--firing several career officials at the agency which oversees government-funded news broadcasters around the world, including Voice of America.
Days after being confirmed to his position in a party-line vote, Michael Pack dismissed Bay Fang of Radio Free Asia; Jamie Fly of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Alberto M. Fernandez of Middle East Broadcasting Networks; Emilio Vazquez of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting; and Libby Liu of the Open Technology Fund.
"Trump wants a ministry of information that will spew out the party line. It's a dangerous moment for democracy."
--Brett Bruen, former White House director of global engagement
Liu was fired despite the fact that she had earlier announced her resignation, effective in July. The director and deputy director of Voice of America, Amanda Bennett and Sandra Sugawara, also resigned after Pack was confirmed.
Pack has already replaced several of the officials with Trump allies and political appointees, and is expected to name former Breitbart News writer Jeffrey Shapiro as the head of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.
Both Shapiro and Pack are close allies of Steve Bannon, Trump's former advisor who formerly worked as the executive chairman of Breitbart News. Pack, a right-wing filmmaker, made two documentary films with Bannon about nuclear power and the Iraq War.
Shapiro reportedly said in 2017 that he aimed to one day remake the USAGM as a "Bannon legacy," and in 2016 wrote an op-ed denying claims that Bannon is a white nationalist.
Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted that Pack's actions in his first days at the helm of the USAGM was "alarming."
"The Breitbart crowd may be getting a taxpayer-funded global platform," wrote Shaub.
The "Wednesday night massacre" came on the heels of numerous attacks from the president of Voice of America (VOA), which he claims broadcasted Iranian and Chinese propaganda, particularly regarding the coronavirus pandemic. In April, Trump said delays in Pack's confirmation hearings were preventing the administration from "managing" VOA.
Progressive critics have long considered VOA a vehicle for U.S. government propaganda overseas, promoting American-friendly coverage of world events while masquerading as an independent "voice." Still, the overt takeover by a Trump sycophant and political supporter has raised particular alarm.
As Jon Allsop wrote at Columbia Journalism Review on Wednesday, VOA and the other news organizations operating under the USAGM do not operate entirely independently of the federal government's interests.
"While VOA is mandated by Congress to do independent journalism and its leaders have sometimes sought to style it as a normal news organization, there's no getting around the fact that it was founded, during the Second World War, as a vehicle for American soft power, and never really abandoned that role," Allsop wrote.
However, he added, "Trump's very public attitude toward VOA is ample cause for concern," as the president could be aiming to use the broadcaster as a tool in his "fitful, moral-free approach to US foreign policy."
Nina Jankowicz of the nonpartisan Wilson Center expressed concern that as "cut-and-dry administration mouthpieces" VOA and its partner broadcasters will disappear as sources of news in parts of the world "where there otherwise might not be one."
\u201cThis is worrying on so many levels- but the biggest is that if these outlets become cut-and-dry administration mouthpieces, millions will lose a trustworthy, independent source of news where there otherwise might not be one.\u201d— Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1592446508
Pack's dismissal of the longtime officials--and his demand Wednesday to staffers that "Until further notice, no actions are to be taken, and no external communications are to be made, without explicit approval" of the new executives--could also eventually endanger people working for USAGM around the world.
\u201cIt will also endanger local staff working in dangerous environments. Many USAGM properties already are in authoritarians\u2019 crosshairs; this will give them further reason to target them.\u201d— Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1592446508
"Trump wants a ministry of information that will spew out the party line," Brett Bruen, director of global engagement under former President Barack Obama, told Asia Times. "It's a dangerous moment for democracy."
President Donald Trump's newly-appointed head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media was criticized Thursday for enacting what one former employee called a "Wednesday night massacre"--firing several career officials at the agency which oversees government-funded news broadcasters around the world, including Voice of America.
Days after being confirmed to his position in a party-line vote, Michael Pack dismissed Bay Fang of Radio Free Asia; Jamie Fly of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Alberto M. Fernandez of Middle East Broadcasting Networks; Emilio Vazquez of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting; and Libby Liu of the Open Technology Fund.
"Trump wants a ministry of information that will spew out the party line. It's a dangerous moment for democracy."
--Brett Bruen, former White House director of global engagement
Liu was fired despite the fact that she had earlier announced her resignation, effective in July. The director and deputy director of Voice of America, Amanda Bennett and Sandra Sugawara, also resigned after Pack was confirmed.
Pack has already replaced several of the officials with Trump allies and political appointees, and is expected to name former Breitbart News writer Jeffrey Shapiro as the head of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.
Both Shapiro and Pack are close allies of Steve Bannon, Trump's former advisor who formerly worked as the executive chairman of Breitbart News. Pack, a right-wing filmmaker, made two documentary films with Bannon about nuclear power and the Iraq War.
Shapiro reportedly said in 2017 that he aimed to one day remake the USAGM as a "Bannon legacy," and in 2016 wrote an op-ed denying claims that Bannon is a white nationalist.
Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted that Pack's actions in his first days at the helm of the USAGM was "alarming."
"The Breitbart crowd may be getting a taxpayer-funded global platform," wrote Shaub.
The "Wednesday night massacre" came on the heels of numerous attacks from the president of Voice of America (VOA), which he claims broadcasted Iranian and Chinese propaganda, particularly regarding the coronavirus pandemic. In April, Trump said delays in Pack's confirmation hearings were preventing the administration from "managing" VOA.
Progressive critics have long considered VOA a vehicle for U.S. government propaganda overseas, promoting American-friendly coverage of world events while masquerading as an independent "voice." Still, the overt takeover by a Trump sycophant and political supporter has raised particular alarm.
As Jon Allsop wrote at Columbia Journalism Review on Wednesday, VOA and the other news organizations operating under the USAGM do not operate entirely independently of the federal government's interests.
"While VOA is mandated by Congress to do independent journalism and its leaders have sometimes sought to style it as a normal news organization, there's no getting around the fact that it was founded, during the Second World War, as a vehicle for American soft power, and never really abandoned that role," Allsop wrote.
However, he added, "Trump's very public attitude toward VOA is ample cause for concern," as the president could be aiming to use the broadcaster as a tool in his "fitful, moral-free approach to US foreign policy."
Nina Jankowicz of the nonpartisan Wilson Center expressed concern that as "cut-and-dry administration mouthpieces" VOA and its partner broadcasters will disappear as sources of news in parts of the world "where there otherwise might not be one."
\u201cThis is worrying on so many levels- but the biggest is that if these outlets become cut-and-dry administration mouthpieces, millions will lose a trustworthy, independent source of news where there otherwise might not be one.\u201d— Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1592446508
Pack's dismissal of the longtime officials--and his demand Wednesday to staffers that "Until further notice, no actions are to be taken, and no external communications are to be made, without explicit approval" of the new executives--could also eventually endanger people working for USAGM around the world.
\u201cIt will also endanger local staff working in dangerous environments. Many USAGM properties already are in authoritarians\u2019 crosshairs; this will give them further reason to target them.\u201d— Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Nina Jankowicz \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1592446508
"Trump wants a ministry of information that will spew out the party line," Brett Bruen, director of global engagement under former President Barack Obama, told Asia Times. "It's a dangerous moment for democracy."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
LATEST NEWS
Omar, Ramirez Among First in Congress to Decry 'Unconstitutional' Trump Strike on Boat
"They're now using the failed War on Drugs to justify their egregious violation of international law," the Minnesota progressive said of the Trump administration.
Sep 04, 2025
Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Delia Ramirez on Thursday strongly condemned the Trump administration's deadly attack on a boat allegedly trafficking cocaine off the coast of Venezuela as "lawless and reckless," while urging the White House to respect lawmakers' "clear constitutional authority on matters of war and peace."
"Congress has not declared war on Venezuela, or Tren de Aragua, and the mere designation of a group as a terrorist organization does not give any president carte blanche," said Omar (D-Minn.), referring to President Donald Trump's day one executive order designating drug cartels including the Venezuela-based group as foreign terrorist organizations.
Trump—who reportedly signed a secret order directing the Pentagon to use military force to combat cartels abroad—said that Tuesday's US strike in international waters killed 11 people. The attack sparked fears of renewed US aggression in a region that has endured well over 100 US interventions over the past 200 years, and against a country that has suffered US meddling since the late 19th century.
"It appears that US forces that were recently sent to the region in an escalatory and provocative manner were under no threat from the boat they attacked," Omar cotended. "There is no conceivable legal justification for this use of force. Unless compelling evidence emerges that they were acting in self-defense, that makes the strike a clear violation of international law."
Omar continued:
They're now using the failed War on Drugs to justify their egregious violation of international law. The US posture towards the eradication of drugs has caused immeasurable damage across our hemisphere. It has led to massive forced displacement, environmental devastation, violence, and human rights violations. What it has not done is any damage whatsoever to narcotrafficking or to the cartels. It has been a dramatic, profound failure at every level. In Latin America, even right-wing presidents acknowledge this is true.
The congresswoman's remarks came on the same day that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated a pair of Ecuadorean drug gangs as terrorist organizations while visiting the South American nation. This, after Rubio said that US attacks on suspected drug traffickers "will happen again."
"Trump and Rubio's apparent solution" to the failed drug war, said Omar, is "to make it even more militarized," an effort that "is doomed to fail."
"Worse, it risks spiraling into the exact type of endless, pointless conflict that Trump supposedly opposes," she added.
Echoing critics including former Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth, who called Tuesday's strike a "summary execution," Ramirez (D-Ill.) said Thursday on social media that "Trump and the Pentagon executed 11 people in the Caribbean, 1,500 miles away from the United States, without a legal rationale."
"From Iran to Venezuela, to DC, LA, and Chicago, Trump continues to abuse our military power, undermine the rule of law, and erode our constitutional boundaries in political spectacles," Ramirez added, referring to the president's ordering of strikes on Iran and National Guard deployments to Los Angeles, the nation's capital, and likely beyond.
"Presidents don't bomb first and ask questions later," Ramirez added. "Wannabe dictators do that."
'Cruelty': US Appeals Court Blocks Order to Shut Down Alligator Alcatraz
"The fact that a facility embedded in so much pain is allowed to reopen is absolutely disheartening!" said Florida Immigrant Coalition's deputy director.
Sep 04, 2025
Two judges appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by President Donald Trump issued a Thursday decision that allows a newly established but already notorious immigrant detention center in Florida, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, to stay open.
Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida sought "to halt the unlawful construction" of the site. Last month, Judge Kathleen Williams—appointed by former President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida—ordered the closure of the facility within 60 days.
However, on Thursday, Circuit Judges Elizabeth Branch and Barbara Lagoa blocked Williams' decision, concluding that "the balance of the harms and our consideration of the public interest favor a stay of the preliminary injunction."
Judge Adalberto Jordan, an Obama appointee, issued a brief but scathing dissent. He wrote that the majority "essentially ignores the burden borne by the defendants, pays only lip service to the abuse of discretion standard, engages in its own factfinding, declines to consider the district court's determination on irreparable harm, and performs its own balancing of the equities."
The 11th Circuit's ruling was cheered by the US Department of Homeland Security, Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who declared in a video that "Alligator Alcatraz is, in fact, like we've always said, open for business."
Uthmeier's communications director, Jeremy Redfern, collected responses to the initial ruling by state and federal Democrats, and urged them to weigh in on social media. Florida state Sen. Shevrin "Shev" Jones (D-34) did, stressing that "cruelty is still cruelty."
In a Thursday statement, Florida Immigrant Coalition deputy director Renata Bozzetto said that "the 11th Circuit is allowing atrocities to happen by reversing the injunction that helped to paralyze something that has been functioning as an extrajudicial site in our own state! The Everglades Detention Camp isn't just an environmental threat; it is also a huge human rights crisis."
"Housing thousands of men in tents in the middle of a fragile ecosystem puts immense strain on Florida's source environment, but even more troublesome, it disregards human rights and our constitutional commitments," Bozzetto continued. "This is a place where hundreds of our neighbors were illegally held, were made invisible within government systems, and were subjected to inhumane heat and unbearable treatment. The fact that a facility embedded in so much pain is allowed to reopen is absolutely disheartening! The only just solution is to shut this facility down and ensure that no facility like this opens in our state!"
"Lastly, it is imperative that we as a nation uphold the balance of powers that this country was founded on," she added. "That is what makes this country special! Calling judges who rule against you 'activists' flies in the face of our democracy. It is a huge tell that AG Uthmeier expressed this as a 'win for President Trump's agenda,' as if the courts were to serve as political weapons. This demonstrates the clear partisan games they are playing with people's lives and with our democracy."
While Alligator Alcatraz has drawn widespread criticism for the conditions in which detainees are held, the suit is based on the government's failure to follow a law that requires an environmental review, given the facility's proximity to surrounding wetlands.
In response to the ruling, Elise Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Associated Press that "this is a heartbreaking blow to America's Everglades and every living creature there, but the case isn't even close to over."
Healthcare Giants Have Raked in 'Sick Profits' From Trump Tax Cuts While Stiffing Patients: Report
The report found that seven of America's biggest healthcare companies have collectively dodged $34 billion in taxes as a result of Trump's 2017 tax law while making patient care worse.
Sep 04, 2025
President Donald Trump's tax policies have allowed the healthcare industry to rake in "sick profits" by avoiding tens of billions of dollars in taxes and lowering the quality of care for patients, according to a report out Wednesday.
The report, by the advocacy groups Americans for Tax Fairness and Community Catalyst, found that "seven of America's biggest healthcare corporations have dodged over $34 billion in collective taxes since the enactment of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law that Republicans recently succeeded in extending."
The study examined four health insurance companies—Centene, Cigna, Elevance (formerly Anthem), and Humana; two for-profit hospital chains—HCA Holdings and Universal Health Services; and the CVS Healthcare pharmacy conglomerate.
It found that these companies' average profits increased by 75%, from around $21 billion before the tax bill to about $35 billion afterward, and yet their federal tax rate was about the same.
This was primarily due to the 2017 law's slashing of the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, a change that was cheered on by the healthcare industry and continued with this year's GOP tax legislation. The legislation also loosened many tax loopholes and made it easier to move profits to offshore tax shelters.
The report found that Cigna, for instance, saved an estimated $181 million in taxes on the $2.5 billion it held in offshore accounts before the law took effect.
The law's supporters, including those in the healthcare industry, argued that lowering corporate taxes would allow companies to increase wages and provide better services to patients. But the report found that "healthcare corporations failed to use their tax savings to lower costs for customers or meaningfully boost worker pay."
Instead, they used those windfalls primarily to increase shareholder payouts through stock buybacks and dividends and to give fat bonuses to their top executives.
Stock buybacks increased by 42% after the law passed, with Centene purchasing an astonishing average of 20 times more of its own shares in the years following its enactment than in the years before. During the first seven years of the law, dividends for shareholders increased by 133% to an average of $5.6 billion.
Pay for the seven companies' half-dozen top executives increased by a combined $100 million, 42%, on average. This is compared to the $14,000 pay increase that the average employee at these companies received over the same period, which is a much more modest increase of 24%.
And contrary to claims that lower taxes would allow companies to improve coverage or patient care, the opposite has occurred.
While data is scarce, the rate of denied insurance claims is believed to have risen since the law went into effect.
The four major insurers' Medicare Advantage plans were found to frequently deny claims improperly. In the case of Centene, 93% of its denials for prior authorizations were overturned once patients appealed them, which indicates that they may have been improper. The others were not much better: 86% of Cigna's denials were overturned, along with 71% for Elevance/Anthem, and 65% for Humana.
The report said that such high rates of denials being overturned raise "questions about whether Medicare Advantage plans are complying with their coverage obligations or just reflexively saying 'no' in the hopes there will be no appeal."
Salespeople for the Cigna-owned company EviCore, which insurers hire to review claims, have even boasted that they help companies reduce their costs by increasing denials by 15%, part of a model that ProPublica has called the "denials for dollars business." Their investigation in 2024 found that insurers have used EviCore to evaluate whether to pay for coverage for over 100 million people.
And while paying tens of millions to their executives, both HCA and Universal Health Services—which each saved around $5.5 billion from Trump's tax law—have been repeatedly accused of overbilling patients while treating them in horrendous conditions.
"Congress should demand both more in tax revenue and better patient care from these highly profitable corporations," Americans for Tax Fairness said in a statement. "Healthcare corporation profitability should not come before quality of patient care. In healthcare, more than almost any other industry, the search for ever higher earnings threatens the wellbeing and lives of the American people."
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