'What could possibly go wrong?' Kari Lake’s VOA deal with far-right OAN setting off shockwaves
Kari Lake at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland on March 3, 2023 (Consolidated News Photos/Shutterstock.com)
Far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist Kari Lake was both disappointed and happy following the 2024 election — disappointed because she lost Arizona's U.S. Senate race to now-Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), happy because Donald Trump was elected president instead of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. And Trump offered Lake a position, appointing her senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) — which supervises Voice of America (VOA) and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting as well as Radio Free Europe.
Now, according to Lake, VOA is partnering with One America News (OAN) — a far-right cable news outlet that, like Newsmax, prides itself on being to the right of Fox News and Fox News and considers itself more pro-Trump than those channels.
OAN is known for promoting conspiracy theories: After Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, OAN pushed the false and repeatedly debunked claim that the election was stolen from him.
READ MORE: 'You see falls in politics — but not like this': DeSantis' star imploding amid fraud scandal
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday, May 6, Lake wrote, "United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is excited to announce a partnership with One America News Network (OAN) to provide newsfeed services to USAGM networks, including Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Martí, and Voice of America (VOA)….. 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 added, "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's announcement is receiving a lot of reactions on X.
MeidasTouch's Ron Filipkowski tweeted, "Sure, why not wreck another great American institution that has been a beacon of light around the world for decades and replace it MAGA’s North Korean style media."
READ MORE: 'Be more relatable': GOP begs Trump to stop talking about dolls
Awful Announcing's Ben Koo posted, "Absolutely brutal. VOA's reach is a very impressive ~330 million people a week. Outsourcing this content to OAN via an assist from Kari Lake..... just a really tough one to swallow. I recommend the 60 Minutes piece on VOA (available on Youtube) if unfamiliar."
RussOnPolitics' Russell Drew wrote, "Kari Lake turning Voice of America into a pro-Trump propaganda machine by piping in OAN content is insanity. VOA was meant to represent American values abroad — not far-right disinformation. This is how democracies rot from the inside. A nightmare move by a nightmare figure."
X user John Sellers wrote, "Goebbels lives."
Another X user, Harold Gallagher, posted, "Lake is unfit and unqualified. Bonafide Fox News Trash."
X user Julio Cesar wrote, "A former weather girl turned fascist grifter who spreads insane QAnon propaganda running VOA. What could possibly go wrong?"
