Media Agencies

What the document says

“These responsibilities must remain with the Department of Defense and the Office of Personnel Management”

The chapter says the agency must never again be entrusted with delegated authority over its own personnel security programs and suitability determinations until it can prove past failures will not recur. Those responsibilities were transferred to Defense and the Office of Personnel Management in the final weeks of the Trump Administration.

What the document says

“Fiscal responsibility and transparency should return to the USAGM, with consolidation being a cornerstone of the strategy.”

The chapter says surplus services broadcasting in the same languages are often unnecessary and counterproductive, naming Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty in the surrounding passage, and makes consolidation the center of its approach.

What the document says

“If VOA is not put in the direct chain of command under the NSC, serious consideration should be given to putting”

Voice of America is the government's international broadcaster and operates under a firewall intended to protect journalistic independence. The chapter argues that firewall has been used without formal regulation to shirk oversight. It recalls that the service was under the direct supervision of the War and State Departments during the Cold War, and proposes putting it in the direct chain of command under the National Security Council, or else considering an alternative arrangement.

What the document says

“the USAGM should be defunded and disestablished.”

The chapter conditions this on the agency's aim remaining, in its words, to compete in foreign markets using anti-US talking points that parrot America's adversaries' propaganda, which it says would be an unacceptable burden on the taxpayer. It first asks for the agency to be reformed top to bottom with congressional and White House support.

What the document says

“the next conservative President must finally get this done and do it despite opposition from congressional members of his own party if necessary. To stop public funding is good policy and good politics.”

The chapter argues that the government is heavily in debt, that it should not compel what it calls the conservative half of the country to pay for the suppression of its own views, and quotes Jefferson on compelled contributions. It says stopping public funding must be done even over opposition from the President's own party in Congress.

What the document says

“This special budgetary treatment is unjustified and should be ended.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives appropriations two years in advance, which the chapter says insulates it from Congress's power of the purse and from oversight. It notes a request for a $565 million advance appropriation, a $40 million increase on the previous year.

What the document says

“They should no longer, for example, be qualified as noncommercial education stations (NCE stations)”

Noncommercial educational status gives stations reserved places on the broadcast spectrum. The chapter says NPR, Pacifica and the other radio ventures have no claim on an educational function, and that the President should instruct the Federal Communications Commission to exclude stations affiliated with PBS and NPR from that category.