Conventional news organizations follow a simple protocol in pursuing this week’s WikiLeaks dump of alleged CIA documents about tools to hack into computers, smartphones and the like. Just open up the documents, read them, consult with experts and perhaps write up an article or two. That process doesn’t proceed quite as smoothly at the Voice of America (VOA), the government-funded news outlet that launched in 1942 “to combat Nazi propaganda with accurate and unbiased news and information.”

If you were to ask the VOA’s editors why they run stories that violate their Charter, they would probably tell you that they don’t have the manpower to cover everything. But these lapses are, in the end, inexcusable. [...] If the VOA’s editors have to choose between running a one-sided story that violates their Charter, or no story at all, then they should run no story at all.

A little more than seven weeks after the United States officially entered World War II, a live, 15-minute shortwave radio broadcast was transmitted into Germany from a small studio in New York City on February 1, 1942. It was introduced by the American patriotic song "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Then, announcer William Harlan Hale's voice could be heard saying: “We bring you Voices from America. 

Most Americans probably don't think about it much, and some may even be unaware, but the United States has a government-funded international media outlet, Voice Of America. Now that Donald Trump is president, VOA, at least in a technical sense, is under his control. If you are thinking "This may not end well," you may be correct.