The government’s official news network Voice of America (VOA) will partner with and receive new feed services from right-wing news media outlet One America News (OAN) Network.
Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Agency for Global Media by email outside of normal business hours on Thursday evening for comment.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump appointed Kari Lake, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Arizona in 2022 and then for the state’s open Senate seat in 2024, to serve as the special advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media as part of his second administration.
The White House has adopted a new media approach during the new administration, such as adding bloggers, podcasters, social media influencers and others into press briefings, while eliminating dedicated workspaces for national outlets NBC, The New York Times, Politico, and National Public Radio (NPR) from the Pentagon.
Trump last month signed an executive order to cut federal funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), saying that the outlets “have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda.”
What To Know
Lake announced late on Tuesday night through a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has agreed to a partnership with OAN to provide newsfeed services to the agency’s networks, which include the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Florida’s Radio Marti, and VOA.
“This idea came about after OCB suggested we explore OAN as a newsfeed option for the Miami-based, U.S. Government-funded news operation broadcasting to Cuba,” Lake wrote. “At their suggestion, I reached out to OAN, and they offered to provide their newsfeed and video service free-of-charge.”
Lake said the deal would prove an “enormous benefit to the American taxpayer” while making clear that in her current role, she does not “have editorial control over the content of VOA and OCB programming,” but she would “ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs.”
“And every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,” Lake wrote. “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.”
OAN is a pro-Trump network that frequently broadcast claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election, leading Dominion Voting Systems to sue OAN, it’s owner Robert Herring Sr., his son Charles Herring, and journalists Chanel Rion and Christina Bobb for promoting the conspiracy theory that Dominion’s machines were used to rig the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. All defendants denied any wrongdoing.
What People Are Saying
The House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats account on X wrote: “The Trump administration smeared VOA and USAGM as radical and biased to justify gutting it. Now Kari Lake wants to repurpose VOA as a megaphone for OAN—a far-right, pro-Trump propaganda outlet. VOA was built to fight propaganda—not broadcast it.”
Vocal Trump critic and editor-in-chief at the Meidas Touch Ron Filipkowski wrote on X: “Sure, why not wreck another great American institution that has been a beacon of light around the world for decades and replace it MAGA’s North Korean style media.”
What Happens Next
It remains unclear at what point the OAN newsfeeds will start to filter into VOA.
The post Voice of America Will Now Carry Trump-Favorite OAN appeared first on Newsweek.
