Donald Trump has selected right-wing activist L. Brent Bozell III to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The agency is independent of the federal government and oversees the Voice of America broadcast network as well as other taxpayer-funded news and information services targeting Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Bozell will require Senate approval to become CEO of USAGM.
Trump’s latest pick is best known for creating the extremist Media Research Center, which has claimed for decades that mainstream media is liberal and does not provide enough of a platform for conservative views. MRC has stood by this claim even as mainstream media organizations furthered lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, advanced falsehoods about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails, and are currently buckling to Trump.
Along with his crusade against the “liberal media,” Bozell and his organization have also repeatedly complained that movies and television shows sometimes acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people and occasionally regard them as perfectly acceptable members of society.
In a 2013 column, Bozell lamented that gay characters on movies and TV shows “never face any real opposition to the gay agenda on these so-called ‘inclusive’ programs.” He also railed against a project by the advocacy group GLAAD which tracked the number of LGBTQ+ people depicted in entertainment.
He referred to GLAAD as “trend-enforcers” who “want children indoctrinated.”
A few years before that, Bozell wrote that he was upset that actors and media outlets expressed sympathy for gay teens who face bullying, describing them as “evangelists for a revolution of sexual immorality.”
Bozell’s Media Research Center also complained that Yahoo! deleted anti-gay hate comments, that the media didn’t depict enough “ex-gays,” and was incensed at CNN for purportedly supporting “homosexual causes.”
MRC even boycotted the notoriously right-wing CPAC conference because a group that supported gay equality was allowed to attend.
At one point, Bozell even demanded a congressional investigation of an art exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington because it depicted “images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts.” The exhibit was pulled after Bozell and other conservatives complained.
On foreign policy matters, Bozell was among the contingent of conservatives who insisted that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. Bozell made the claim in 2006, long after it had been discovered that no such weapons existed. He is also a reliable presence spouting right-wing talking points on Fox News programs.
Trump’s decision to tap Bozell for the post echoes his choice of conspiracy theorist Kari Lake to head Voice of America. These selections make it clear that Trump intends to infuse the government’s media infrastructure with extremist right-wing values and talking points.
But it seems that extremism runs in the family. Bozell’s son L. Brent Bozell IV, was sentenced to 45 months in prison for assaulting law enforcement, destroying government property, and other charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot instigated by Trump.
Bozell’s son was among the 1,500 people who were pardoned by Trump on Tuesday for their participation in the insurrection.
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