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Kari Lake tries to turn Voice of America into OAN [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-07
Kari Lake has negotiated for OAN, One America News, to provide "newsfeed services" for the Voice of America at no cost. Only Kari Lake is thrilled with the idea.
VOA is part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The USAGM says on a March 15th page about VOA lease cancellations and the shutdown of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting that "This agency is not salvageable." So what the hell is going on here?
The VOA, Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Europe employees won their case to keep from being fired and therefore the agency from being shut down.
That USAGM page is just Kari Lake garbage about her claimed top to bottom rot and how it would be sized down to statutory requirements.
The main USAGM.gov page still touts that they reached a record global audience in 2024.
Obviously, she has changed course, but to what? The Office of Cuba Broadcasting is still operational, or she wouldn't be talking about an OAN "newsfeed" for OCB. Why would anyone there suggest OAN means that key personnel have been replaced, but not all the other employees that do all the work. I would assume they won't be happy with OAN being their only new source, as that's what it sounds to be. Earlier this year the White House announced that contracts with AP, AFP and Reuters had been canceled.
The really bad news is that they will be the newsfeed for VOA itself and Radio MartÃ. Radio Martà does radio and television broadcasting in Spanish into Cuba.
What's incredibly interesting in her X post is that she does not "have editorial control over the content of VOA and OCB programming..."
That's some good news.
A lawyer for VOA employees said the move violates federal law. "It's shocking and illegal. USAGM by law cannot interfere with Voice of America's statutory mandate to be an independent media source. OAN calls itself one of Donald Trump's 'greatest supporters.'"
The deal is currently just a memorandum of understanding between USAGM and OAN's parent company, Herring Networks, according to a person familiar with the situation.
VOA's White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara and press freedom editor Jessica Jerreat said, "VOA already has talented and professional journalists ready to tell American story in line with the VOA Charter, but we are blocked from our own newsroom. That is why we will continue fighting for our rights in court."
OAN has been peddling Donald Trump's lies since he came on the political scene. They are still fighting a Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit, the same type that cost Fox News $787 million. OAN, and the parent company, could be put out of business with a large judgment. OAN has been doing terrible since 2022 when DirecTV dropped them from its programming packages. So, OAN doesn't have the resources to do anything than just retransmit what they've got to VOA.
OAN has one notable host. Matt Gaetz.
Since Trump put out his executive order called The Voice of Radical America on March 15th, it has been touch and go for VOA.
It wasn't until April 22nd, when Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a ruling that closed all the loopholes that Trump's lawyers were exploiting as workarounds to orders, like they try to do on all rulings against the Trump administration. Finally, the newsroom was back operational, and programming creation returned. Then, another ruling put Judge Lamberth's order on hold so everyone was laid off again. Work stoppage. Then, this OAN venture was announced.
This decision will be challenged by the lawyers for VOA employees and other groups challenging Trump. They should have already fought back to restore the AP, AFP and Reuters newsfeeds. The real people running VOA won't stand for OAN being their only outside source. OAN itself has an unsure future. And Kari Lake can't control editorial content. Score at least one for press freedom.
The outcry after Trump's executive order was substantial. Trump seems to have gotten away with destroying USAID. Canceling this other forward facing agency that has been counted on around the world for accurate reporting is just one more Trump attack on the freedom of the press.
It may take time, but VOA will go on in spite of Kari Lake. She has a proven track record of failure, and this will be another one.
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