Just days after a federal appeals court blocked the reinstatement of over 1,000 Voice of America employees, the US Agency for Global Media is drawing scrutiny for approving a new content deal to bring One America News Network coverage to VOA.
USAGM Senior Advisor Kari Lake confirmed the OAN partnership on Tuesday via a post on X, stating the network will supply its newsfeed content, free of charge, to Voice of America and other federally funded international broadcasters.
The move is drawing deep concern from many VOA employees, who cite OAN’s far-right proclivities. OAN, owned by Herring Networks, has faced the loss of major carriage agreements in recent years following public pressure and concerns over the network’s dissemination of misinformation, particularly due to its coverage of the 2020 US presidential election.
The network was sued by voting technology companies Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems for broadcasting false claims that their systems were involved in election fraud. In April 2024, OAN settled the lawsuit with Smartmatic, with terms remaining confidential. Similarly, OAN reached a settlement with a former Dominion executive in September 2023.
Voice of America White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara told Reuters, “What they [at USAGM] have done, in effect, is replace our 83-year legacy of producing reliable, authoritative news with the hard work and commitment of countless journalists with a contract to outsource our news-gathering to a source that is clearly partisan.”
The decision comes during a period of significant upheaval at VOA, following Trump’s return to the White House and his administration’s aggressive efforts to overhaul government-run media. Lake has taken sweeping action since being appointed by President Trump to USAGM, the agency that oversees VOA and other outlets like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In March, Lake placed nearly all VOA employees on leave, accusing its output of mirroring adversarial propaganda.
It is disingenuous to support defunding PBS and NPR under the argument that “biased media” shouldn’t be funded by taxpayer dollars but be fine with using taxpayer-funded VOA to disseminate OAN.
Now you know how the rest of us felt under Obama and whoever ran things when Biden was elected.
It is our solemn duty to Dear Leader: ALL HEIL the VOICE OF TRUMP!