Trump picks Kari Lake to lead Voice of America: NPR

President-elect Donald Trump says Kari Lake, a local television news anchor and former MAGA politician, will lead the federally funded Voice of America network.

If successful, the move would put a loyalist at the helm of a news outlet that Trump sought to control under his nominee in the final year of his first term. Trump officials tried to strip the network and its parent agency of their independence during his first term, including actions that were later found to be illegal and, in one case, unconstitutional.

But Trump doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally install Lake; Hiring is carried out by a non-partisan board of directors led by the managing director of the parent agency.

Voice of America (VOA), funded by Congress, operates in nearly 50 languages ​​and reaches an estimated 354 million people around the world each week. It is part of the US Agency for Global Media, the government agency that oversees all US non-military international broadcasting.

Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday that Lake will be appointed and will work closely with the new head of that agency, “who I will announce soon.”

A free press is central to VOA’s mission: it aims to bring unfettered reporting to places where freedom of the press does not exist, and to highlight political debates and disagreements in the United States, even those critical of the incumbent deal with the government.

Trump’s White House took the unprecedented step of openly attacking VOA in public statements in the spring of 2020 for allegedly failing to explicitly blame the Chinese government for the pandemic.

On Wednesday, Trump wrote that Lake and his yet-to-be-named agency head will “ensure that American values ​​of liberty and freedom are spread FAIRLY and ACCURATELY around the world, unlike the lies spread by the fake news media.” become”.

Lake, who ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona this year and for governor in 2022, has made a political name for herself, among other things, by overcoming election losses (both hers and Trump’s in 2020). denied and railed against the mainstream media of which she was once a part.

She left her job at the Phoenix Fox affiliate in 2021 after over two decades and a series of controversies, including the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 during the pandemic.

In her speech at the Republican National Convention this summer, Lake accused the “fake news” of having “spent the last eight years lying about President Donald Trump and his great, patriotic supporters” and said they had “your Reception exhausted”.

On Wednesday, Lake said she was excited to start at VOA, which she said is an “important international media company dedicated to advancing the interests of the United States by working directly with people around the world and democracy and truth.” promotes”.

“Under my leadership, VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements around the world,” Lake tweeted.

However, that’s not exactly the organization’s stated mission. Its website says it is “committed to providing comprehensive coverage of the news and telling the truth to audiences.”

What is Voice of America?

VOA was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda in Germany.

“We bring you voices from America,” said presenter William Harlan Hale in the first German-language broadcast. “Today and from now on, we will speak to you daily about America and the war. The news may be good for us. The news may be bad. But we will tell you the truth.”

By the end of World War II, the company broadcast 3,200 programs each week in 40 languages ​​to introduce America to the world – and create a free press.

VOA was able to continue and even expand its operations during the Cold War. And when the United States Information Agency was created in 1953, VOA became its largest element.

Today, its more than 2,000 employees produce radio, digital and television content that is distributed via a network of satellite, cable, FM and AM as well as around 3,500 affiliated stations.

VOA bills itself as the largest international U.S. broadcaster; others are Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Radio Martí.

Is VOA editorially independent?

From the beginning, administration officials debated what balance VOA should strike between reporting the news and promoting U.S. foreign policy. Over the years, the station has taken several steps to maintain its editorial independence in practice and policy.

In the late 1950s, VOA staff drafted a formal statement of policy to protect the editorial integrity of its broadcasts, which became the official VOA charter in 1960. President Gerald Ford signed it into law in 1976.

There are three main guidelines: VOA news must be “accurate, objective and comprehensive”; “represent America, not any single segment of American society” and cover not only U.S. politics but also “responsible discussions and opinions” about them.

The US International Broadcasting Act of 1994 went one step further and enshrined a “firewall” in US law, prohibiting any US government official from interfering with the objective, independent reporting of news.

“The firewall ensures that VOA can make the final decision about which stories are reported and how they are covered,” the broadcaster says.

As NPR reported, this firewall came under threat during the first Trump administration.

What happened to VOA during Trump’s first term?

Although owned by the federal government, VOA came under attack from the White House during the first Trump administration, particularly in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.

The White House accused the broadcaster of amplifying Chinese government propaganda about the country’s efforts to contain the virus, which it denied.

In that context, the Republican-led Senate finally confirmed conservative filmmaker Michael Pack as head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, two years after Trump first nominated him.

Pack’s arrival shocked VOA even before he arrived: Two top officials resigned as soon as he was confirmed.

To further heighten fears of political interference, Pack quickly stripped most of the agency’s executives of their powers and fired the heads of state-sponsored foreign-audience broadcasters, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.

“My job is really to drain the swamp, root out corruption and deal with these issues of bias, not to tell journalists what to report,” Pack told the pro-Trump website The Federalist at the time.

During his seven-month tenure at VOA’s parent agency, Pack was repeatedly accused of meddling in the process – from personnel actions like reassigning VOA heads and refusing to extend the work visas of foreign employees to editorial decisions like removal several controversial stories from the site after publication.

Under Pack’s leadership, the agency also investigated one of its own VOA White House reporters for alleged anti-Trump bias and lifted the firewall designed to ensure editorial independence from partisan political interference.

A formal federal investigation also found that Pack committed a “waste or gross waste of government resources” by paying a private firm $1.6 million to investigate agency executives he deemed insufficiently loyal (they were eventually exonerated). This work is usually carried out by prosecutors.

The Biden administration promptly removed several Trump loyalists from the US Agency for Global Media and VOA itself after taking office in 2021. A federal investigation released in 2023 found that Pack had repeatedly committed abuses of power and gross mismanagement – including but not limited to on, violation of the independence of journalists. A federal judge found that Pack had violated the network’s journalists’ constitutional protections for free speech.

Is Lake’s leadership a sure thing?

The chaos of the Pack era led to congressional reform—particularly the creation of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board (IBAB).

The IBAB is an independent federal body composed of seven people: six mass communications and international affairs experts appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and one seat for the Secretary of State. No more than three of the presidential appointees may belong to the same political party.

The Senate confirmed its six new members last December.

The Board’s stated mission is to ensure editorial independence and increase the impact of the work of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It also plays a role in the appointment and removal of heads of the agency’s units.

The leaders of the VOA and others “shall not be appointed or removed unless such action is approved by the board,” the charter states.

In particular, VOA welcomed a new director – the former and long-time president of Freedom House Washington Post Reporter and editor Michael
Abramowitz – in June.

It is not clear when or if the board will meet to decide whether to replace Abramowitz. Trump has not yet said who he plans to appoint to head the parent agency, the US Agency for Global Media, a position that requires Senate confirmation.

The board has not yet responded to NPR’s request for comment.