Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America by Mel Bunce, Martin Scott, Kate Wright

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/812312 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Capturing News, Capturing Democracy: Trump and the Voice of America Author: Mel Bunce, Martin Scott, Kate Wright Narrator: Tom Campbell Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 44 minutes Release date: September 10, 2024 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: The Voice of America (VOA) is the oldest and largest US government-funded international media organization. In 2020, Donald Trump nominated Michael Pack, a right-wing documentarian and close friend of Steve Bannon, to lead the US Agency for Global Media—the independent federal agency overseeing US-funded international media. During Pack's seven month tenure, more than thirty whistleblowers filed complaints against him, and a judge ruled that he had infringed journalists' constitutional right to freedom of speech. How did such a major international public service media network become intensely politicized by government allies in such a short time, despite having its editorial independence protected by law? Capturing News, Capturing Democracy puts these events in historical and international context—and develops a new analytical framework for understanding government capture and its connection to broader processes of democratic backsliding. Drawing from in-depth interviews with network managers and journalists, and analysis of private correspondence and internal documents, Kate Wright, Martin Scott, and Mel Bunce analyze how political appointees, White House officials, and right-wing media influenced VOA—changing its reporting of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the 2020 presidential election.