The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2023 65 AFSA NEWS Diplomats at Work Speaker Series FSO-Journalist on Countering Disinformation On Feb. 7, Steve Herman, Foreign Service officer and chief national correspondent with Voice of America (VOA), was the featured guest for AFSA’s Diplomats@Work series, where we talk to active-duty diplomats about their work and life in the U.S. Foreign Service. VOA is a branch of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Herman’s job is unlike any other in the Foreign Service. As an active journalist and Foreign Service officer, he frequently serves overseas, but does not fall under chief of mission (COM) authority or work out of the embassy, which allows him to main- tain his independence as a journalist. “We are government employees,” says Herman, “but because of the congres- sionally enacted firewall, any particular administra- tion cannot tell us what to report or what not to report. We have a mission to report about America to the rest of the world. And that also means reflecting the differ- ent viewpoints in the United States as well.” Herman discussed his role as a journalist and dip- lomat in fighting disinforma- tion, explaining that VOA was originally founded in 1942 to combat wartime disinformation, or “propa- ganda,” as it was called at the time. He suggested that his approach to countering dis- information is simple, say- ing: “VOA was founded on a very novel concept, which was just to tell the truth.” If you make the facts available, he said, your listeners can discern the truth. Herman called the spread of disinformation “a question of news lit- eracy,” saying that when he returned to the United States in 2016, he was “a bit disheartened to find that a lot of people, including educated people, seemed to be relying on their Facebook page for information and weren’t really discerning in where they were getting their information.” A way to counter this, he suggested, is to teach students at an early age how to consume news. “We’re adults; it’s incumbent on us to self-educate, but what do we do with the next generation coming up? It’s a huge question that needs to be addressed.” VOA is not broadcast in the United States—its mis- sion is to target more than 278 million listeners outside the U.S., who might other- wise not have access to truthful news broad- casts—but it is accessible online at www.voanews.com in 48 languages, including Russian, Mandarin, and Farsi. Herman also got per- sonal, telling the audience why his Twitter account was once banned by Elon Musk, and sharing the story of when former Vice President Mike Pence barred him from traveling on Air Force Two for truthfully reporting on a vice presidential visit to the Mayo Clinic at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. So how does one get a job with VOA? The process is different than it is for other foreign affairs agen- cies. “Unlike other agencies … where they’re recruit- ing significant numbers of fresh, newly minted Foreign Service officers every year, that’s not how it works at VOA,” Herman explained. Most VOA positions are Civil Service, and the few Foreign Service positions are almost all engineers, not correspondents. VOA looks for experi- enced broadcasters who are fluent in other languages and are skilled in editing video. “A USAID Foreign Service officer could not transfer over to VOA or vice versa. … That was different back in the USIA days, when people did flow from State into VOA.” To listen to a recording of the talk, go to bit.ly/ countering-disinfo. n Check Your Facts Wondering if something you heard is true? Herman recom- mends VOA’s own fact-checking site, polygraph.info. VOA journalists research quotes and stories released by govern- ment officials and other high-profile individuals, debunking lies or adding context as necessary. The site covers topics including human rights, economics, and military affairs, including the war in Ukraine. n Steve Herman