By Laurie LaMountain

Guest Column

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. — U.S. Constitution, First Amendment.

There is a reason the framers of the Constitution put this amendment first and foremost. Democracy depends on it. Which is why we absolutely cannot afford an administration that seeks to deny these inalienable rights. And yet that is precisely what Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership sets out to do.

In addition to defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has been funded since the Nixon administration, when National Public Broadcasting (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) first went on air, it paints much broader brushstrokes with regard to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

The mission of USAGM is “to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”1 Which I think we can all agree is a good thing. One of the agencies USAGM oversees is the Voice of America (VOA), which provides news and information in 48 languages to a weekly audience of 326 million people.2

The agenda of the Mandate for Leadership seeks to downsize and defund the USAGM “through consolidation and reduction of redundant services.” It goes on to say that “the possibility of consolidating not only the agency’s subparts but bringing the entire agency under the National Security Council, the State Department, or both would dramatically aid that reform.” In conclusion, the Mandate states that without reformation that imposes State-control, “the USAGM should be defunded and disestablished.”3

One of the most effective ways to silence the majority is to hamstring the media. If you don’t believe it, just look at Russia. Following is an excerpt from a September 2023 PBS Frontline report: “Foreign journalists have also not been exempt from Russia’s crackdown. The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich, an American who was accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a journalist, was detained last March during a reporting trip and accused of espionage.

‘Evan is wrongfully detained and the charges of espionage against him are false,’ Dow Jones chief executive and the Journal publisher Almar Latour and Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a joint statement. ‘We demand his immediate release and are doing everything in our power to secure it.’”4

Reporters Without Borders Jeanne Cavalier said the arrest appeared to be “a retaliation measure” that was “very alarm(ing) because it is probably a way to intimidate all Western journalists that are trying to investigate aspects of the war on the ground in Russia.”5

The Biden administration has since successfully secured Evan’s release, along with several other detainees. But if you think attacks on a free press can’t happen here, think again. Despite Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Project 2025, here is what he had to say in a September 2023 Truth Social post: “I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events.”6

Be sure to exercise your right to free speech on November 5, 2024.

Laurie LaMountain is Editor/Publisher of Lake Living magazine,

Denmark.

Sources

1. https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/mission/

2. https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf p.235

3. https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf p.245

4. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/russia-putin-press-freedom-independent-news/

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Gershkovich

6. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/who-is-donald-trump-planning-revenge-against.html