{A} senior Voice of America editor defended his outlet’s controversial decision not to refer directly to Hamas members as terrorists after that policy was reversed under pressure from Congress, maintaining that the group is not seen that way “everywhere that we broadcast to.”
Representative Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) revealed the leaked comments by VOA News Center director Barry Newhouse in a recent letter addressed to the U.S.-funded media outlet’s acting director, John Lippman.
Referring to his existing investigation into VOA’s Hamas policy, Issa wrote that he had “been made aware of troubling developments that undermine the spirit of reform suggested in our discussion and worse, call into question VOA’s commitment to its charter.”
“We are reviewing the letter and will respond directly to the Congressman,” a VOA spokesman told National Review.
While editorially independent of the U.S. government, VOA is required by U.S. law to “present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.” But since the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel, congressional Republicans have accused it of failing to comply with that requirement. Issa and Senator Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.) launched investigations into the outlet after National Review reported that an internal VOA policy instructed staffers to “avoid calling Hamas and its members terrorists, except in quotes.”
On December 5, Lippman announced that the policy had been reversed and that the directive was “always a mistake.” But Newhouse’s comments indicate that one of the outlet’s most senior editors does not view Lippman’s announcement, and private assurances to Issa that it was a mistake, as a genuine reversal of the policy.
“I do not believe that those represent changes in policy. I believe that they restated the policy in different ways,” Newhouse said in a subsequent town-hall meeting with VOA journalists, according to Issa’s letter. “We had essentially people on the Hill and some people in outside media, I think, either had a misinformed kind of read of what our policy was, or they had sort of a bad-faith read of it where they’re not really interested in the truth because they want to score points or something. This is just the nature of the business.”
While taking a conciliatory tone in conversations with Issa, Lippman has also previously derided congressional oversight, referring to Hagerty’s demands that he fire VOA staffers as “silly.”
Issa also noted Newhouse’s assertion in the leaked town-hall comments that VOA started immediately referring to October 7 as a terrorist attack.
VOA stories have referred to October 7 as a terrorist attack and also typically mention the U.S. designation of Hamas and other groups as terrorist organizations. VOA directed staff to note the U.S. designation of the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group in a January 17 memo.
But the outlet has rarely referred directly to the perpetrators of the October 7 attack as “terrorists,” despite applying the label to members of groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS previously, according to a letter that Hagerty sent to Amanda Bennett, the CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, on November 7. Even after the reversal of the initial Hamas policy, many VOA stories have not regularly labeled members of the group terrorists.
According to the leaked comments recapitulated in the letter, Newhouse also explained that he believes the “most accurate way to describe” Hamas is “as a U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group.”
“That is the most accurate way because Hamas is not seen as a terrorist group everywhere that we broadcast to,” Newhouse added, according to Issa’s letter. He said that in Russia, China, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia, “Hamas is a government that was elected by the Palestinian people, and they meet other government officials.”
“I think it’s more accurate for us not to use a label that may be misconstrued sort of in the local context,” he also allegedly said.
In the letter, Issa responded to those comments, saying that Hamas is a terrorist group “regardless of whether voices in Iran, China, Russia, and elsewhere seek to legitimize its terrorism by pointing out its pretensions to governmental legitimacy.” He also asked Lippman to answer a series of questions about VOA’s coverage of Hamas and its compliance with the VOA Charter, which is enshrined in law. He suggested that Lippman’s answers would shape his approach to supporting further funding for VOA in the next fiscal year.
Hagerty, who led a group of several GOP senators in questioning the initial Hamas policy last year, also suggested that there could be repercussions for appropriations allocated to VOA.
“I was deeply dismayed to learn how, in a recent Voice of America townhall meeting, Acting Director of VOA News Center Barry Newhouse not only doubled down on VOA’s absurd editorial guidance against referring to Hamas as terrorists, but also showed contempt for congressional oversight,” Hagerty told National Review in a statement. “Given VOA is funded entirely by U.S. taxpayers, it’s not a good look when VOA leadership is dismissive of the legitimate concerns of their elected representatives.”