Voice of America reporter reassigned for Secretarty Mike Pompeo questions
NEW YORK (AP) — The White House reporter for Voice of America was abruptly pulled from her beat after trying to question Secretary of State Mike Pompeo following a speech he gave at the government agency this week.
Pompeo’s speech and the demotion of Patsy Widakuswara led to an angry phone meeting between journalists and managers Tuesday that typified some of the tensions at the agency during President Donald Trump’s administration.
Founded during World War II and run by the U. S. Agency for Global Media, Voice of America broadcasts news from the United States to countries around the world. The administration has sought to have VOA better reflect its messages, while journalists there have taken pride in their independence.
In his speech on Monday, Pompeo said that “it’s not fake news for you to broadcast that this is the greatest nation in the history of the world.” He said he backed their role as journalists, but said the agency was not “Vice of America”
and that its broadcasts had too often demeaned the country.
After speaking, he engaged in a brief question and answer session with VOA’s new director, Robert Reilly.
Apparently unsatisfied with the questions put to Pompeo, Widakuswara shouted her own as he was leaving. “Mr. Secretary, what are you doing to repair
the United States’ reputation around the world?” she asked, in reference to last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a tape of the encounter she later tweeted.
When he didn’t answer, she asked, “Mr. Secretary, do you regret saying there will be a second Trump administration?”
Pompeo walked away without acknowledging her.