Former Fox News Correspondent Lea Gabrielle to Lead State Department’s Counter-Propaganda Office

Navy veteran and former Fox News correspondent Lea Gabrielle confirmed in a Thursday interview with Foreign Policy that she has been named the new head of the U.S. Department of State’s counter-propaganda effort. Gabrielle will take lead of the Global Engagement Center, which helps the secretary of state respond to “Russian disinformation, terrorist group messaging, and Chinese propaganda,” as Foreign Policy noted. “We have to realize that we are under attack by adversary countries and international terrorist organizations that are using propaganda and disinformation as a weapon,” Gabrielle said in the interview, reportedly citing China, Iran, and Russia. “They’re doing it because it’s cheap, and it’s easy, and because they can.” Gabrielle was a naval fighter pilot and then an intelligence officer who reportedly fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq. She later became a reporter for NBC News and then Fox News, where she primarily served as a correspondent for Shepard Smith Reporting.