TRANSCRIPT:
We are long past the time when individuals like Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain could sort of monopolize the international image of America. Now we have a blizzard of information and disinformation, lies and truths coming at people from all sides. I hope Americans will care that Voice of America provides that eloquent and uniquely unbiased — no matter what anybody says — unbiased approach to the American experience for the understanding of people around the world.
Without Voice of America, the United States has no disciplined, unbiased — and again unbiased — professional approach to countering the disinformation about America and to telling the American story in a way that people can understand and appreciate, and that will come from a credible source. If Voice of America is silenced, that will indicate that the assaults on media freedom around the world are now taking place inside the United States. And that is a serious problem for American credibility, a serious problem for the American image, and a very serious problem regarding the previously benign and even enthusiastic view many people had of the United States as a place of hope and a place where all views can be considered, and the intellectual baseline for innovation and for advancement is possible.
Published
Kanin is a retired CIA senior analyst and scholar of international politics. After a 31-year career at the CIA, he taught at Johns Hopkins SAIS and Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.