Key points:
- Musk, Grenell oppose state funding of media outlets
- Tech billionaire takes a swipe at EU
- Hints at purging VOA
Islamabad: US President Donald Trump’s “efficiency czar” Elon Musk has called for shutting down US-funded media outlets Radio Free Europe and Voice of America.
Responding to comments by US Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Richard Grenell, Musk wrote on X: “Yes, shut them down. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Nobody listens to them anymore. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”
“Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are media outlets paid for by the American taxpayers. It is state-owned media. These outlets are filled with far-left activists,” Grenell reportedly said on Feb. 9. “I’ve worked with these reporters for decades. It’s a relic of the past. We don’t need government-paid media outlets.”
Scrutiny and controversy
According to Yahoo News, both Elon Musk and Richard Grenell have voiced strong opposition to government funding of media organisations, arguing that taxpayer money should not be used to support these outlets.
As head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has criticised federal payments to media organisations like Politico, the Associated Press and The New York Times, deeming them inefficient uses of taxpayer funds and moving to eliminate them.
“Must be terminated”
Similarly, Grenell, as Trump’s special mission envoy, has publicly condemned government spending on media subscriptions, echoing Musk’s stance that such funding should be terminated immediately, Yahoo News said.
These calls come amid broader scrutiny and controversy surrounding government-funded media, with the Trump administration taking steps to halt subscriptions to outlets like Politico.
