THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2024 67 at the age of 8 in 1968 when he handed out bumper stickers for the Republican candidate for senator. When his family moved to Las Vegas, he began his reporting career in local radio there as a teenager. He attributes some of his success to his favorite teachers in junior high school, noting with particular gratitude that one of them taught him to touch-type, something many journalists to this day have never mastered. Herman devotes extensive attention to the uniqueness of VOA’s mission, challenges, and restrictions. Founded in 1942 at the height of World War II, VOA from the start was charged with providing balanced, nonpartisan, fact-based journalism while at the same time airing editorials representing the views of the U.S. government. Although VOA correspondents overseas (today there are fewer than you can count on one hand) are represented by the American Foreign Service Association as members of the Foreign Service, they are not State Department employees and must adhere to a strict firewall protecting their reporting from official government influence. These realities set up a clash with the Trump administration, as Herman recounts in detail. Senior White House officials were unhappy and uncomfortable with VOA reporting the news as they saw it, and bristled at what they saw as a liberal bias against President Trump and his team. As VOA’s senior White House correspondent, Herman was in the crosshairs. He came under fire for his reporting on COVID-19 cases in the Trump administration, the president’s illness included. In the book, Herman shares the particularly difficult challenge dealing with Trump’s appointee as head of USAGM. Michael Pack, a right-wing filmmaker, was determined to eliminate noncitizen foreign journalists whose work was essential to VOA’s foreign language services. Herman joined with other senior VOA colleagues in signing a letter to the acting director of VOA expressing concern about the firings and the apparent politicization of the agency. Pack was infuriated by the letter, only half-jokingly telling a reporter that he intended to “drain the swamp” at VOA by “banning masks and turning off the air conditioning.” Pack retaliated against Herman directly by launching an investigation charging Herman with political bias against Trump and by seeking to have him removed from the White House beat. The Washington journalism community joined in supporting Herman in federal court, where an injunction was ultimately issued barring VOA leadership from interfering with editorial Herman continues to draw on his passion for journalism and a deep understanding of what it takes to deliver solid reporting to a global audience. BOOKS On the Beat with VOA Behind the White House Curtain: A Senior Journalist’s Story of Covering the President—and Why It Matters Steven L. Herman, Kent State University Press, 2024, $29.95/hardcover, print only, 248 pages. R E R Voice of America Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman has written a fascinating insider’s account of what it was like to cover the White House during the Trump administration in his new book, Behind the White House Curtain. The book is part memoir, part history lesson. In it, Herman makes a strong case for reinforcing the protections and firewalls that enable reporters to play the role envisioned by our Founding Fathers, and for restoring the fundamental concept of a nonpartisan, objective, balanced Fourth Estate. Steve Herman is a journalist’s journalist. He is not only a talented, awardwinning reporter but also a ferocious advocate for freedom of the press and the right of the American people to know what their government is doing in their name. Herman served on AFSA’s Governing Board for many years doing regular battle on behalf of his colleagues with the leadership of the Voice of America (VOA) and its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). In the book, Herman traces his career from his early days as a novice reporter in the 1970s to his travels with presidents across the globe. He goes back further to his experience as a child growing up in suburban Cincinnati, developing a precocious fascination with politics and public affairs, starting
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