Congressman Opens Probe into VOA over ‘Mindboggling’ Policy on Not Calling Hamas ‘Terrorists’

Representative Darrell Issa launched a probe into Voice of America this morning, warning that the U.S.-funded outlet’s “mindboggling” policy barring its journalists from referring to Hamas members as terrorists has compromised its mission to conduct accurate reporting, National Review has exclusively learned.

In a letter to Voice of America’s acting director, John Lippman, Issa expressed concern that VOA’s guidance on Hamas violates its own editorial guidelines and strays from the journalistic objectivity to which the news service has committed itself for decades, citing National Review’s reports on the policy. The California Republican leveled a searing critique of the news service in that letter and in comments today. “Established more than 80 years ago to combat Nazi propaganda and present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, the VOA is now contextualizing terror and failing to call evil by its name,” Issa told NR in a statement. “Time for a course correction.”

VOA spokesperson Emily Webb confirmed that the outlet had received the letter and said: “We will respond to it promptly.”

The lawmaker’s investigation into VOA comes amid growing concern that the U.S.-government-funded but editorially independent outlet, relied upon by millions across the world for accurate information, is pulling its punches when it comes to describing the terrorist group that brutally massacred Israeli civilians last month.

A former government official who sat on the board that oversees the outlet echoed Issa’s worries about VOA’s decline. “It’s a sad day for VOA, once a proud voice for truth, when in the aftermath of the October 7 pogrom it refuses to label Hamas as terrorists,” said Ken Weinstein, a former chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the predecessor to today’s U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.

The controversy began last month when, after the October 7 Hamas attacks, Voice of America editors issued guidance to the outlet’s journalists directing them not to refer to individual Hamas members as “terrorists” outside of quotes. VOA reporters are permitted to call the killings “terrorist attacks” and can note that Washington has labeled Hamas a terrorist organization.

NR also reported that VOA had directed a freelance reporter in Israel to redo part of a voiceover she had submitted for a story about Hamas’s attack on the Nova music festival, where hundreds were killed, swapping the word “terrorists” for the word “militants.” When reached for comment, VOA doubled down on the change, but said it had erred by initially failing to note that Hamas is a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Issa pointed to each of these developments in his letter, at one point referring to how a VOA editor explained that the service’s editorial policy against labeling Hamas as terrorists is motivated by a desire not to demonize groups. “In light of the atrocities on October 7, VOA’s picayune resistance to demonizing demons is mindboggling,” Issa wrote.

VOA, while U.S.-funded, maintains editorial independence from U.S. government officials through its “firewall” policy, as Issa noted:

While I am aware that the firewall prevents you from impacting editorial content decisions — a critical distinction that fundamentally distinguishes American international broadcasting from state-run media outlets operated by our adversaries — VOA’s leadership is nonetheless responsible for both the direction of the organization and the intentional application of such obvious editorializing that undermines a key part of your mission: “VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively.”

When asked about the VOA’s policy on not calling Hamas “terrorists,” a spokesperson for USAGM told NR that the “legislated firewall prohibits USAGM from weighing in on the editorial decisions of its entities,” and that its purpose is to protect their journalistic independence.

In the letter, Issa slammed an email that a VOA editor sent during an internal email discussion about the standards guidance, which said, referring to Hamas’s motives, “we don’t really know why they did it.” Weinstein, who is the Walter P. Stern Distinguished Fellow at the Hudson Institute, also told NR that that message was “beyond reprehensible.”

Issa requested copies of the emails and standards guidance that NR had reported on, with a deadline of November 9.