House GOP Suspects Biden Admin ‘Censorship’ of Voice of America over Favoritism Scandal

T he Biden administration might have improperly censored a Voice of America article to shield an employee of the U.S.-funded news agency who is favored by its politically appointed overseers, a senior House Republican lawmaker charged today. While VOA denies that that’s what has happened, a federal agency might soon be compelled to hand over documents as part of the congressional probe.

U.S. government-funded news agencies are reeling from a string of scandals relating to a pattern of favoritism, mismanagement, and security lapses widely recognized by members of both parties in Washington. In one recent case, last month, the Voice of America suspended two journalists in its Russian-language arm with pay over allegations that they previously had worked for Kremlin-backed propaganda outlets.

Mike McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is now pressing the Biden-administration officials tasked with overseeing VOA, alleging that the agency censored portions of an article about that Russian propaganda scandal, according to the letter, obtained today by National Review. The letter was addressed to U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Amanda Bennett, a controversial political appointee charged with overseeing VOA and other U.S.-funded news outlets.

“Apparent censorship of the sort displayed here violated both USAGM’s statute and the high principles of journalistic integrity it claims to uphold,” McCaul wrote. He demanded that, by March 20, Bennett’s team hand over a tranche of internal U.S. Agency for Global Media and VOA documents related to the changes made to the article.

While USAGM is the federal agency that oversees VOA and other U.S.-funded outlets, there’s supposed to be a “firewall” insulating the outlets’ journalistic work from the administration’s political direction. McCaul’s letter suggests that Bennett’s team of political appointees may have breached that firewall in order to protect a controversial VOA employee favored by USAGM management.

McCaul’s charges center on VOA staffer Setareh Sieg, formerly the director of the outlet’s Persian-language service. She was fired from that role during the Trump administration after an investigation requested under then-CEO Michael Pack found that she had wasted government funds and lied about attending the Sorbonne University, as the school has no record of her enrollment.

Under the Biden administration, in February 2021, Sieg was brought back to VOA in a different capacity, and the agency released a report clearing her of wrongdoing. Last December, McCaul said that USAGM’s stance still “failed to take account of various inconsistencies regarding Sieg’s alleged credentials.”

The final five paragraphs of a February 25 VOA article, describing the suspension of the Russian-propaganda-affiliated employees, originally recapitulated the saga surrounding Sieg’s firing and McCaul’s previous efforts to investigate her abrupt reinstatement.

But within a few days, according to McCaul, “this accurate information was scrubbed from the [VOA] site, and an editor’s note was attached reading ‘Some background information originally contained in this story has been removed pending further review.’” The updated version, according to McCaul, was scrubbed to avoid any mention of Sieg and specific criticism of USAGM.

USAGM sources told NR that Sieg is a friend of Bennett’s, and a congressional source suspects that USAGM senior leaders who know Sieg are improperly shielding Sieg.

A USAGM employee told National Review that it’s likely that instruction came “from very high up” to edit the story to remove all mentions of Sieg. This person also pointed out that while the edited version put Sieg, without naming her, into the same category as other “whistleblowers” fired under Pack’s term as CEO, her case is different.

“This is a very, very unusual incident of a story being changed” so that it doesn’t reflect poorly on a VOA executive, the agency employee added.

VOA spokesman Jim Fry, however, denied that there was anything strange about the incident, pointing out that editors often review stories after publication.

“In this case, editors determined that the story needed broader context instead of reference to a specific individual in a different case. At no time do VOA journalists take editorial direction from USAGM,” Fry added.

A USAGM spokesperson confirmed this evening that the agency received the McCaul letter and added, “There is no improper relationship” between Bennett and Sieg.

It’s still unclear, however, which editor made that determination and why.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that the two VOA employees accused of working for Russian propaganda outlets had been suspended with pay, not without pay.