Op-ed by Raya Koyeh @ TheHill.com, Oct. 20

[...] Trump may have his sights on a medium with a global audience of 345 million people that provides a new, multi-lingual megaphone: the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the government-funded international news agency.

A legacy of the Cold War, the agency broadcasts news from a U.S. perspective abroad. It was founded on the principle that promoting freedom of the press around the world requires balanced, objective news coverage — including reporting critically on the U.S. and its foreign policy. To do its work, the agency must remain independent from the White House.

But now vigorous congressional oversight is critical to prevent the agency from devolving into an international Trump propaganda machine and disseminating its news directly to American audiences in violation of a longstanding law.

The Senate has begun hearings on the nomination as agency CEO of Michael Pack, a conservative filmmaker, Trump fan, and close collaborator of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon. The Trump loyalist would take the reins of an agency with an $808 million budget and that oversees five news networks with 3,500 journalists broadcasting on radio, television, and the internet in 61 languages. Pack was asked during his nomination hearing in mid-September whether he would be able to resist pressure from the president to promote favorable coverage, and Pack replied that he thinks he can [....]