Voice of America will carry programming from the right-wing TV network One America News, according to a post on X from Kari Lake on Tuesday night.
Voice of America will carry One America News programming
Staffers at the government-funded broadcaster condemned the announcement from Kari Lake, given OAN’s right-wing slant and support of President Donald Trump.
May 7, 2025 The Washington Post
By Scott Nover
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“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,” Lake wrote in a post on X announcing the agreement. “And every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both. OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.”
In the statement, Lake said that she reached out to OAN to supply news to U.S. broadcasts to Cuba. OAN in return offered its news and video services “free-of-charge.”
Charles Herring, president of OAN, confirmed to The Washington Post that the programming is free. “OAN will be supplying an extensive amount of programming, including ‘Hungry Heroes,’ a series that highlights the incredible work performed by our first responders and military,” Herring wrote in a text message Wednesday morning.
The Trump administration is fighting in court to defend a March executive order dismantling the USAGM. The order led to more than 1,000 Voice of America staffers being placed on paid administrative leave, and broadcasting has stopped for the first time in the organization’s history. Voice of America began broadcasting in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda during World War II.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction April 22 blocking the executive order from taking effect — a move that would have sent most VOA staffers back to work this week. But on Saturday, a three-judge federal appeals court panel in Washington that included two Trump appointees stayed parts of the injunction, including the part that sent staffers back to work. The injunction still requires VOA to fulfill its statutory mandate.
Some Voice of America staffers returned to work Tuesday — fewer than 20 out of more than 1,300 staffers — according to three people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for retaliation and given the pending litigation.
Lake’s announcement was met with outrage from Voice of America staffers, who pointed to OAN’s right-wing slant and support of President Donald Trump.
“VOA is not to be the voice of left America nor the voice of right America,” said Steve Herman, chief national correspondent for VOA.
“USAGM cannot dictate [that] VOA run OAN content. It would be a violation of our fire wall and our charter, which are laws,” he said.
VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara and press freedom editor Jessica Jerreat, plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits against the government over the executive order, said this agreement violates the congressional mandate of VOA.
“Congress mandated VOA to report reliable and authoritative news, not to outsource its journalism to outlets aligned with the president’s agenda,” they wrote 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. That is why we will continue fighting for our rights in court.”
David Seide, senior counsel for the Government Accountability Project, which is representing plaintiffs in litigation against the government, called the announcement “shocking and illegal” and said it will be challenged in court.
Lake is a journalist turned Republican politician who unsuccessfully ran for Arizona governor in 2022 and the U.S. Senate in 2024. She has promised to use VOA as a “weapon” to fight an “information war.”
Lake did not respond to The Post’s request for comment Tuesday night after sources told The Post of the deal, and she later posted her statement on X announcing the news. The White House and the USAGM did not respond to requests for comment.
OAN is owned by Herring Networks, which was started by Charles’s father, Robert Herring, more than two decades ago. Gaining prominence in the Trump era, OAN has largely run to the political right of the more prominent conservative outlet Fox News. Last year, OAN settled a defamation lawsuit with Smartmatic, the voting technology company, over its coverage of the 2020 election. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
In the first Trump administration, a federal district judge found that the then-CEO of the USAGM violated the “firewall” that ensures that the agency’s networks aren’t mouthpieces of the government and effectively barred the president from interfering with the networks’ content.