Lake says the deal is cost-saving and good for taxpayers. Critics say it undermines VOA’s editorial independence.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) will begin using content from broadcaster One America News Network (OAN).
Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial candidate and senior adviser to USAGM, unveiled the agreement in a May 6 statement, calling the OAN deal a taxpayer win. Under the deal, OAN will provide its video and news feed to USAGM’s networks—including Voice of America (VOA), Radio Martí, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting—free of charge.
“This is an enormous benefit to the American taxpayer, who is the sole source of funding for USAGM’s news outlets, which broadcast only to international audiences,” Lake said, adding that she’s “grateful for their generosity.”
Lake said the idea originated with the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which proposed OAN as a content partner for its Miami-based broadcasts to Cuba. After Lake reached out, OAN agreed to provide its English-language content at no cost.
Although Lake currently holds no editorial authority over VOA or Office of Cuba Broadcasting programming, she said the arrangement expands the range of news content available to agency journalists.
“In my current role as Senior Advisor to USAGM, I don’t have editorial control over the content of VOA and OCB programming, but I can ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs,” she said. “And every day, I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both.”
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The content deal comes amid a sweeping overhaul of USAGM under President Donald Trump’s second-term plan to shrink the federal government and dismantle what he describes as wasteful agencies. A March executive order identified USAGM as one of eight federal entities slated for elimination or radical downsizing, directing agency heads to wind down all non-legally required functions.
In response, USAGM placed over 1,000 employees on leave and informed some 600 contractors their roles would be terminated as broadcasts were paused. The agency also began terminating contracts with major wire services—including The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse—which Lake called “expensive and unnecessary.”
“With a nearly billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves,” Lake said at the time. “If that’s not possible, the American taxpayer should demand to know why.”
Lake estimated the move would save $53 million annually and signaled a broader review of agency expenditures, saying she had discovered “a lot of nonsense that the American taxpayer should not be paying for.”
The reorganization has drawn sharp pushback from some VOA journalists and advocates. Two VOA staffers, White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara and press freedom editor Jessica Jerreat, are among several employees suing the Trump administration over its handling of the agency.
The two criticized the OAN content deal, saying it could undermine VOA’s credibility and editorial independence.
“Congress mandated VOA to report reliable and authoritative news, not to outsource its journalism to outlets aligned with the president’s agenda,” they said in a statement. “VOA already has talented and professional journalists ready to tell America’s story in line with the VOA Charter, but we are blocked from our own newsroom.”
Trump, who has frequently attacked public broadcasters such as NPR and PBS, has long viewed VOA as a source of liberal bias. In a March statement supporting the executive order to defund USAGM, the White House labeled VOA “The Voice of Radical America,” and declared that “taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda.”
Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee also criticized the OAN deal and the Trump administration’s characterization of VOA.
“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,” they wrote in a post on X. “VOA was built to fight propaganda—not broadcast it.”
Meanwhile, a federal judge last month ordered the Trump administration to reinstate VOA employees, and an appeals court quickly blocked the ruling, finding that the lower court lacked the authority to intervene.
Launched in 2013, OAN is a family-owned media outlet known for its conservative perspectives.
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