Voice of America, a US-funded international news broadcaster muted by the Trump administration in March, may sound completely different when you go back into the air.
Kari Lake, the former news anchor who President Trump has overhauled America's voice, said Tuesday that content will be provided by One America News Network or Oan, a pro-Trump television channel that has spread falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election.
Lake, who has held a recent failed campaign for Arizona governor and senators, said OAN has offered to provide free news reports to Voice of America and another US-backed outlet, Cuban Broadcasting Station. In a statement on social media, she called the arrangement “a great benefit to American taxpayers.”
“While you cannot edit VOA and OCB programming content, you can ensure that outlets have reliable and reliable options for creating reports and news programs.
Former American White House director Patsy Widakswara said she was on vacation but was concerned about the development.
“We've worked so hard to build trust for our brand,” she said. “This was great journalism in '83 and it's going to be destroyed.”
Voice of America was created in 1942 to fight Nazi propaganda and has long brought news to the Earth's corner, lacking credible journalism.
In March, Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the US global media agency, the Congress's official body that oversees the voices of America, effectively shutting down news outlets. The president accused the broadcaster of prejudice against him, branding it as a “radical American voice.” Approximately 1,300 workers from Voice of America were sent home.
A broadcasting journalist then sued, saying Trump was not authorized to withdraw funds approved by Congress.
A federal judge in Washington sided with reporters and ordered the Trump administration to regain programming.
The appeals panel appears to complicate the matter over the weekend, reversing some of the lower court's orders calling for the Trump administration to restore funds. However, the panel left the requirement that Voice of America bring back programming.
It is not clear how many voice reporters will return after the court's decision.
“Some of them have already returned,” Lake said in an email Tuesday evening. “Some will come back in the future.”
She declined to comment further.
About 15 employees have recently revived, said Widaksuwara, who was not one of them.
Grant Turner, who served as the chief executive of Voice of America's parent agency in the first Trump administration, said the move to add OAN content violates the statutory requirement that broadcasters be “accurate, objective and comprehensive.”
He predicted that OAN content would not be well worn with foreign audiences either.
“They know how real fake news sounds,” Turner said of the voices of American listeners, adding, “They want something real.”
