A hard-right, Trump-supporting US news network that perpetuated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election will provide news coverage for Voice of America (VoA), the Trump administration said.
Kari Lake, a special adviser to the body that oversees the government-funded VoA, announced on X that One America News (OAN), which was sued by voting machine companies for promoting claims of election fraud, will provide “newsfeed and video service”.
“Every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,” Lake said. “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.”
The news that OAN, which many see as a pro-Trump propaganda outfit, will provide content for VoA, which has traditionally been a more politically neutral news source, is a move that will spur further fears about Donald Trump’s crackdown on the press.
OAN, which spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus epidemic, almost exclusively interviews Republican politicians and rightwing voices, including this week the founder of an organization that denies the existence of the climate crisis.
VoA journalists, who have been shut out of their newsroom since Trump signed a mid-March executive order that took them off the air and offline, denounced the move.
“Congress mandated VOA to report reliable and authoritative news, not to outsource its journalism to outlets aligned with the president’s agenda,” VoA’s White House bureau chief, Patsy Widakuswara, and Washington-based press freedom editor, Jessica Jerreat, said in a joint 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.”
Widakuswara and Jerreat are the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s changes.
A look at OAN’s recent output gives a taste of what listeners would be in for.
Dan Ball, a primetime OAN host, introduced his show last week by telling viewers: “God help us, cackling Kamala comes out of hiding, rearing her ugly head for the first time since her devastating loss to Trump.”
On Tuesday’s show, Ball discussed Trump meeting with Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, adding that the meeting comes “as the global trade war continues – and yes we are winning”.
Lake, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for Arizona governor, serves as a special adviser to the USAGM, VoA’s parent company. Trump signed an executive order on 15 March which aimed to dismantle that agency, and VoA has not produced any content since then. As many as 1,300 VoA employees have been placed on leave.
VoA was founded during the second world war to combat Nazi propaganda, and became a pro-democracy voice heard by millions around the world. In April, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s order to shutter VoA, but the ruling has been caught up in a government appeal.
In March, Lake announced that VoA would no longer use news reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
“We should not be paying outside news organizations to tell us what the news is,” Lake said. “With a nearly billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves.”
Lauren Gambino contributed reporting
