TRANSCRIPT:
The Voice of America presents America to the world. It’s our face to the world. It’s part of our soft power that is so important. You know, it helps influence people, helps people understand who and what we are and what our ethics and morals are.
The thing about Voice of America is it presents facts — good, bad and the ugly. And that’s the way it should be. That’s what makes it so important. It’s freedom of the press and the kind of press that we want to have and need as a nation. And we need to be presenting that to the rest of the world. And that’s what Voice of America does.
Well, when you silence the Voice of America, the rest of the world is going to get propaganda. And believe me, the Russians and the Chinese will be very happy to fill that gap.
I’ve had the opportunity to live overseas and to go overseas on numerous occasions, particularly to observe elections and pre-election missions, and on observing elections themselves people will say to you, “I’ve heard things on Voice of America. I know you believe in this or that.”
It’s a very powerful tool and people do look for it particularly in countries where they have a repressed press as it were, where it’s a government-controlled press, they are eager to find an outlet that actually gives them news, real news so they can find out what’s happening in the rest of the world. And that’s what the Voice of America does.
Granted it’s from our perspective, of course it is, but it’s a perspective that opens the rest of the world to people who live in countries where they can’t get that information. And it helps people understand what the United States is all about and why our democracy — our form of democracy — is important.
Published
Whitman served as the governor of New Jersey from 1994–2001 and led the Environmental Protection Agency from 2001–2003 during the George W. Bush administration.