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 Mediaâthe 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 contextâand 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 VOAâchanging its reporting of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the 2020 presidential election.