David Folkenflik
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Judge Paul Friedman started and ended his opinion by stressing the importance of the First Amendment and of a free press.
The rest of it was just as heavy sledding for the Defense Department.
The judge knocked down new rules requiring reporters to work from a remote annex and to be accompanied by an official escort at all times.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the new policy addressed every element of the judge's prior ruling and that the department would appeal.
Ted Boutros, the trial attorney for The New York Times, called the decision both a vindication of the court's authority and of the First Amendment's protections of independent journalism.
You've seen Carrie Lake kind of go between trying to eviscerate it and just take it out completely, which she has tried to do unsuccessfully, but really did pare it back from about 49 language services to about 6%.
Federal Judge Royce Lamberth said last week, this is unlawful.
This is illegal.
You can't exercise the powers of a presidential appointee without having been appointed to it or without having been eligible to be named to hold that job in title, even on an acting basis.
There is a fresh lawsuit that is accusing her of essentially putting on pro-Trump propaganda as opposed to news reports.
The idea that there's effectively news releases being put on their news websites instead of reported pieces that incorporate different points of view, debate, dissent, critique, whatever.
None of that is happening, they are saying.
The Cold War doesn't exist anymore.
But what is happening around the world is that there is a huge, really, battle over information.
The world is awash in propaganda and lies that directly undermine accurate views about America.
EOA, in particular, has been an incredible asset for fighting back by providing objective news and information
Voice of America represents soft power.
It's you spend some money, you earn goodwill, and you reflect American values of pluralistic democracy abroad.
And you've seen whether it's through the State Department being slashed, whether it's through other kinds of things that have built up sort of an aura of goodwill around American democratic values.