Latest news with #KariLake
Washington Post
a day ago
- General
- Washington Post
Kari Lake won awards for overseas reporting. Now she has the job of cutting it.
In 2007, long before she was a rising star in the Republican Party, Kari Lake flew to Cambodia. This wasn't a typical assignment for a television anchor in Phoenix, but she had a local angle. Cindy McCain, the wife of then-Sen. John McCain and a first lady aspirant, was traveling to the Southeast Asian country to raise awareness for land mine removal efforts.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Voice of America's remaining 800 employees to get termination notices: report
The roughly 800 remaining full-time staffers at Voice of America are preparing for the worst as the US-funded international broadcaster is expected to issue mass termination notices this week, according to a report. Four VOA employees familiar with internal discussions told the news site Politico on Wednesday that the network's employees have been advised to expect reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in the coming days. A senior staffer said conversations with officials at the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, indicate that the planned notices will effectively shut down the historic broadcaster, Politico reported. Advertisement 3 Voice of America's remaining 800 full-time employees are expected to receive termination notices this week, according to a report. AP The looming layoffs follow the earlier dismissal of nearly 600 contractors earlier this month by the Trump administration. One VOA employee said the agency's human resources department had been informed that RIF notices could go out as early as Wednesday. The wave of cuts comes in the wake of a March 15 executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which called for Voice of America and several other agencies to be 'eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.' Advertisement The president has frequently attacked the broadcaster, calling it 'anti-Trump' and dubbing it 'The Voice of Radical America.' VOA employees, however, maintain they have adhered to their mission of delivering nonpartisan journalism. 'Even if somehow the organization can survive in some form, it would take years for our newsroom to overcome the trauma of being beaten up just for doing our job,' said VOA White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the administration. Advertisement 3 President Trump signed an executive order in March calling for VOA and other agencies to be 'eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.' REUTERS 'I don't know how we can return to our mandate to report the facts without fear or favor.' Since March, most VOA operations have remained dark. A limited number of staffers have returned to the office in recent weeks, which employees believe is an attempt by USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake, a close Trump ally, to maintain the legal bare minimum required for agency operation. Lake has also announced that content from the right-leaning One America News Network will now be distributed through VOA channels. Advertisement Despite legal challenges mounted by VOA employees claiming the shutdown violates First Amendment protections, a federal appeals court last week declined to block the administration's efforts. 3 Kari Lake, a former GOP candidate in Arizona, was tapped by Trump to head the agency overseeing VOA. AP The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents VOA staff, has demanded to bargain over the RIFs, but two employees say USAGM has yet to respond — a move that could breach the union's collective bargaining agreement. USAGM, the Department of Government Efficiency, and the White House all declined to comment. As the final staff departures appear imminent, VOA's website remains frozen in time. Its most recent article is dated March 15 — the day the president's order was signed.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Kari Lake brought back a skeleton crew to Voice of America. They're ‘angry most of the time'
While a federal appeals court appears to have given its blessing to the Trump administration's efforts to completely gut Voice of America, the bare-bones staff that Kari Lake brought back earlier this month has been wracked with low morale and confusion. 'I am angry most of the time I'm in there,' one staffer told Poynter this week. Back in March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA and its sister outlets, to reduce staffing down to the 'statutory minimum.' Lake, the failed Arizona politician who now serves as senior adviser overseeing the USAGM, subsequently laid off hundreds of contract employees and placed the rest of VOA's staff on indefinite leave. Following a series of lawsuits from VOA employees and executives, Lake was ordered by a district court judge last month to restore Voice of America and bring back its workforce. Additionally, the judge ruled that the administration needed to reinstate Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. 'Not only is there an absence of 'reasoned analysis' from the defendants; there is an absence of any analysis whatsoever,' Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote. Earlier this month, however, a three-judge appellate court panel decided to freeze the lower court's injunction, saying it needed more time to consider the merits of the case. On Thursday, the full appellate court said it would not intervene at this time. 'We are devastated and concerned that this ruling might lead to further adverse reactions from the administration,' Patsy Widakuswara, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit and VOA's White House bureau chief for Voice of America, told The Independent about the appeals court decision. 'But our day in court is not over yet, and we are committed to fighting until we can return to our congressionally mandated right to broadcast factual, balanced, and comprehensive new.' After Lamberth's initial order to return Voice of America to the air and staff it back up, a small group of 30 employees – from a staff of 1300 workers on leave – was brought back by Lake earlier this month. In an article for Poynter, Liam Scott – VOA's press freedom reporter until he was placed on leave in March and informed he would be terminated this month – spoke to several of the staffers who returned this month and described the 'grim and confusing' atmosphere in VOA headquarters. 'People who are in there do not see this as some kind of hopeful return,' one employee told Scott. 'I am angry most of the time I'm in there… They can't credibly say that they haven't shut us down when zero people are working,' Prior to the president's executive order, VOA broadcast in 49 languages around the world to a weekly measured audience of roughly 360 million people, some of whom live in highly censored authoritarian states. Now, according to those at the pared-down network, Voice of America's content is only translated into Dari, Mandarin Chinese, Pashto and Persian. 'The amount of programming that's being produced is not a credible replacement for what was on air before,' a staffer said. 'We were a 24/7 news operation. Now we're a five-minutes-a-day, five-days-a-week operation,' another source added. 'We all know that this is not what this place is meant to be doing.' Voice of America's primary English-language newsroom, meanwhile, produces just one television segment and a handful of articles a day, which are then translated into the four different languages and published, according to Poynter. Notably, with press freedom experts expressing concern about Kremlin propaganda filling the airspace left vacant by VOA's absence, the network is not publishing in Russian in its current depleted state. At the same time, the small cohort that is currently working to produce what little VOA content they can is still following the network's charter, noting that they haven't received any editorial requests from USAGM since returning. Interestingly, despite Lake's recent announcement that VOA had partnered up with MAGA cable channel One America News to provide a news feed, Voice of America has yet to air any OAN content. 'No one's really in charge,' a staffer told Poynter, noting the lack of clear leadership at VOA right now. Mike Abramowitz, the network's director, remains on administrative leave. The Independent has reached out to Lake and the USAGM for comment. While fewer than three dozen employees man the ship, hundreds of other full-time VOA staffers remain on the sidelines and in limbo as they wait to hear from the administration about their fate. All the while, Lake has cut other 'frivolous expenditures' from VOA and its sister broadcasters. In March, for instance, she canceled the agency's contracts to carry reporting from wire services such as Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. The USAGM also reneged on a 15-year lease for new office headquarters – even though it actually saved the government more than $150 million. Though much of the network's full-time staff remains on administrative leave, such as Widakuswara, hundreds of others have already been told they are gone. Last week, Lake announced that 584 total employees were terminated across USAGM, the majority of whom came from VOA. 'We will continue to scale back the bloat at USAGM and make an archaic dinosaur into something worthy of being funded by hardworking Americans,' she told The Washington Post of the terminations before adding: 'Buckle up. There's more to come Widakuswara, meanwhile, bluntly described how she feels that Lake and the administration are treating the VOA staff at the moment. 'My assessment of the situation is that this is just more emotional terror that they're applying to us,' she told The Independent. 'There's no rhyme or reason why they're bringing people back and then kicking them out. To me, it feels like emotional terror to ensure obedience.'
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Voice of America mass layoffs as Kari Lake pushes Trump agenda
Journalists at Voice of America are watching their careers unravel as Kari Lake and the Trump administration sidestep court orders to dismantle the federally funded media outlet. Despite a legal mandate to restore operations, hundreds have been laid off again, leaving the future of American public diplomacy in peril Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads They showed up to do their jobs. They filed reports, edited broadcasts, and translated global headlines for millions. Now, Voice of America journalists are instead navigating mass layoffs, stalled paychecks, and a grim silence in their once-bustling is the scene inside the US-funded broadcaster that has become the latest target of the Trump administration's war on government-funded media. Despite a judge's order to reinstate operations and staff, Kari Lake , Trump's senior adviser and head of the US Agency for Global Media is pushing forward with deep cuts, citing the president's March executive order to dismantle 'wasteful' read: Hundreds of Voice of America contractors face mass job losses in Trump's latest crackdown With the Voice of America website inactive for over two months and hundreds of contractors laid off, some for the second time, journalists say they are fighting for more than their paychecks. They're fighting for the survival of independent public service broadcasting, as mandated by March 14 Trump executive order calls for the near-total dismantling of the US Agency for Global Media ( USAGM ) and its broadcasting arms, including Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. It directs the agencies to reduce staffing and function 'to the minimum presence and function required by law.'That order gave Kari Lake sweeping control. In the weeks since, she has canceled contracts with international news services like AP and Reuters, gutted plans for a new VOA headquarters, and replaced content partnerships with programming from One America News, a far-right, pro-Trump Lake's own words, Voice of America has morphed from being 'a vital international media outlet' to 'anti-American propaganda' and 'unsalvageable.' The pivot marks a jarring shift in tone from her earlier statements in December, when she pledged to promote democracy and 'tell the American story accurately.'Also read: Is Vladimir Putin blackmailing Elon Musk over Ukraine? Ex-FBI agent alleges Russian plot to target world's richest man In a scathing decision, US District Court Senior Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled last month that the administration's actions were 'arbitrary and capricious.' He ordered Lake and USAGM to immediately bring back workers and resume regular operations.'There is an absence of any analysis whatsoever,' Lamberth wrote, criticizing the lack of justification for shuttering operations. He also ordered the restoration of sister broadcasters, including Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting the administration has resisted. Earlier this month, a 2-to-1 ruling from an appeals court temporarily froze the district court's decision, allowing Lake to proceed with layoffs while the case plays past weekend, she did just that by cutting hundreds of contract employees again. The website remains dormant. And the rest of the VOA workforce? On indefinite White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, the lead plaintiff in the case, warned that the appellate court's decision could embolden the administration.'We are devastated and concerned that this ruling might lead to further adverse reactions from the administration,' Widakuswara told NPR. 'But our day in court is not over yet, and we are committed to fighting until we can return to our congressionally mandated right to broadcast factual, balanced, and comprehensive news.'Also read: Trump admin begins mass layoffs at Voice of America VOA Director Michael Abramowitz echoed her concern in a letter to staff, writing that USAGM might soon move to 'make further reductions.' He assured employees that legal options are being the White House frames the decision as part of a broader effort to eliminate government 'frivolous expenditures,' many inside the agency see it as an ideological current USAGM employees, speaking anonymously due to fear of retaliation, say Lake's plan appears to involve scaling down operations to only a few language services, like Mandarin for China, Farsi for Iran, and Pashto and Dari for Congress having already allocated funds, critics say withholding the money is not only illegal but deeply damaging to national interests. The networks are more than news outlets; they are instruments of soft diplomacy designed to promote American values in regions where the free press is most networks under USAGM suffer, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty recently secured a temporary funding boost from the European Union. The US government still owes the network $75 million under existing read: Trump signs executive order directing federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR That funding gap has already forced furloughs and reduced programming. A federal court has ordered the government to pay, but the administration continues to delay disbursement of Lake has taken to social media to celebrate the appellate ruling, declaring a 'BIG WIN' and mocking the judge's earlier decision. 'Turns out the District Court judge will not be able to manage the agency,' she the uncertainty, a glimmer of legal resistance appeared this week. A federal judge struck down a Trump-backed effort to eliminate the US Institute for Peace through the administration's budget-cutting DOGE initiative. Though not directly related to VOA, the ruling may signal that courts are still willing to rein in executive overreach, just not now, Voice of America staff remain in limbo. The once-vibrant newsroom, a symbol of free press and democracy since World War II, echoes only with silence. Its future hangs in the balance, not just for the journalists left jobless, but for the millions worldwide who once relied on it for uncensored truth.
Forbes
16-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump's War On The Media Explained: Enlists FCC, Congress And The Courts
Voice of America laid off nearly 600 employees Thursday as the Trump administration seeks to effectively dismantle the federally funded state media network—the administration's latest move to reshape the media landscape in ways that benefit the White House. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, ... More on April 27, 2025. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) About one-third of Voice of America's workforce was terminated Thursday, Kari Lake, senior adviser for the organization's parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told multiple outlets in a statement that said 'buckle up, there's more to come.' The move comes after Lake—a special adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, parent company for international broadcaster Voice of America—announced a 'partnership' earlier this month with One America News Network to broadcast its programs on USAGM networks, including the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, Radio Martí and Voice of America. Meanwhile, Trump and his companies have filed lawsuits against his media foes, his administration has elevated partisan right-wing voices in the White House press corps and sought to effectively shut down federally funded media outlets, including the international broadcaster Voice of America, among other tactics. Trump's new FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr also launched investigations into several outlets and warned publicly that a probe into CBS' interview with Harris last year could affect the network's pending multi-billion-dollar merger. Trump has also amped up his rhetoric to attack the press, calling pollsters for the New York Times, ABC News, the Washington Post and Fox News 'negative criminals' who should be 'investigated for ELECTION FRAUD' after the outlets have published surveys in the past week that show he has net negative approval ratings. Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts: We're launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day's headlines. Text 'Alerts' to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here. Trump—who has feuded with CBS for years—is suing the network for $20 billion, claiming it deceptively edited its '60 Minutes' interview with Harris after the network in a preview of her interview aired a different version of Harris' answer to a question than the one shown in the full program. In the preview, Harris gave a more long-winded answer in response to a question about the Israel-Hamas war than the one aired during the full show. The network later released a full transcript of the interview that showed it ran the first sentence of her answer in the preview and the last sentence during the show, though the meaning of her response was largely the same. Trump has repeatedly bashed the program since filing the lawsuit. He urged the FCC to revoke the network's broadcasting license last month over '60 Minutes' coverage of his role in the Russia-Ukraine war and his desire for the U.S. to own Greenland. The dispute has unfolded as CBS parent company Paramount Global seeks the FCC's approval for a multi-billion-dollar merger with Skydance. Paramount owner Shari Redstone wants to settle with Trump, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources. '60 Minutes' correspondent Scott Pelley said recently that Paramount has begun 'to supervise our content in new ways,' leading to producer Bill Owens' departure last week. Semafor also reported Redstone personally has monitored '60 Minutes' Trump coverage in recent months, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the situation, though a spokesperson for Redstone denied the allegation. Owens told staff in a memo made public by The New York Times he was stepping down because he could no longer maintain his journalistic independence. Meanwhile, Carr has warned that the deceptive-editing allegations against CBS could become a factor in the FCC review of the Paramount/Skydance merger. Paramount and Trump began mediation earlier this month. Trump has continued to bash the program on his Truth Social page, ranting on Wednesday about the Emmy nomination '60 Minutes' received for its Harris interview, writing 'these antics are why the American People have no trust in the Press, and demand that the Media, very much including 60 Minutes, CBS, and its owners, be held responsible for their corruption and lies, which is exactly what we are doing in Court!' Trump signed an order May 2 to defund NPR and PBS after reports that he plans to ask Congress to revoke $1.1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, declaring 'government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.' PBS and NPR have not ruled out legal action to fight the order, with CEO Paula Kerger telling CBS 'we have never seen a circumstance like this and obviously we're going to be pushing back very hard,' while NPR CEO Katherine Maher told the network 'we're looking at whatever options are available to us.' The FCC also said it's opened investigations into NPR and PBS and whether they aired 'announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements,' Carr said in a letter to the organizations in January. Carr said the investigation could factor into Congress' decision on whether to continue funding the organizations. NPR said in a statement in a news article about the threat that the funding cut 'would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation,' adding that 'locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.' PBS CEO and President Paual Kerger told NPR the move would 'disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.' On April 29, the CPB sought a temporary restraining order to prevent Trump from removing three board members—two appointed by Biden and one appointed by Trump during his first term then reappointed by Biden—arguing the law that established the organization allows Trump to appoint board members, but not fire them. Carr has opened numerous investigations into media organizations and has echoed Trump's critical rhetoric of news coverage. 'We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,' Carr tweeted prior to his appointment as FCC chair. He also warned that 'broadcast licenses are not sacred cows,' suggesting the commission could revoke licenses for companies that don't 'operate in the public interest,' and he threatened that the FCC could block merger proposals from companies that promote DEI. In addition to the NPR and PBS probes, Carr has announced investigations into Comcast's diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and a San Francisco-based radio station's coverage of an immigration raid. Comcast said in a statement to the New York Post in response to the probe that it would cooperate with the investigation and built the company 'on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers.' The FCC doesn't distribute and can't revoke licenses for entire networks and instead oversees licensing for their affiliated local broadcast channels. Cable networks, such as CNN and MSNBC, are not within its jurisdiction since they don't broadcast on public airwaves. Stations could fight any attempt to revoke their licenses in court, and laws that dictate their regulatory authority would make it highly unlikely, if not impossible, to pull a station's license. The FCC is prohibited, for example, from 'engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.' Licensing and merger decisions require the approval of the full commission, which is made up of the chair and four members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. One of the commission's two Democrats, Geoffrey Starks, announced last month he would resign this spring, and a third Republican seat is vacant. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth on April 22 ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Network and rehire all staff, halting an executive order Trump signed in March to shut down the government-funded news organizations. Trump, claiming Voice of America was 'anti-Trump' and pushed 'radical propaganda,' revoked funding for the VOA and its parent company, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, prompting the organizations to place more than 1,300 employees and hundreds of contractors on leave. Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits opposing the shutdown, ruled the move was likely unconstitutional since the organization was created by and is funded by Congress. On April 29, Lamberth ordered the Trump administration to reinstate $12 million in funding that had previously been appropriated to Radio Free Europe, saying in the ruling the Trump administration cannot take away money that Congress allocated, the Associated Press reported. The VOA, which has a budget of about $260 million annually and was formed in 1942 as a counter to Nazi propaganda, broadcasts in more than 40 languages to an international audience of more than 350 million. Radio Free Asia was formed in 1994 by the International Broadcasting Act and has a budget of about $61 million, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network was founded in 2004 and has a $100 million budget. The White House has attempted to bar the Associated Press from accessing some spaces, such as the Oval Office and Air Force One, after it refused to rename the 'Gulf of Mexico' to the 'Gulf of America' in its style guide. The Associated Press then sued the Trump administration over the blockade, and Judge Trevor McFadden ruled in the AP's favor earlier this month, though Trump has appealed the ruling. The White House also eliminated a permanent spot in the press pool reserved for wire services and instead put the AP, Bloomberg and Reuters in a rotation for two 'print' slots, along with 31 other outlets. The Trump administration announced in February it would decide which journalists are allowed in the White House press pool, breaking a years-long tradition in which the independent White House Correspondents' Association coordinated the pool, made up of 13 journalists from a rotating group of outlets who travel with the president and share their reporting with other media outlets. The Trump administration has also set up a 'new media' seat in the briefing room that's offered to outlets that don't have a permanent spot, such as Forbes, though it often hosts non-traditional media such as podcast hosts and social media personalities. Trump and his companies have filed multiple lawsuits against media organizations prior to his winning a second term. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company for Trump's Truth Social platform, filed a $1.5 billion lawsuit against 20 media organizations, including Forbes, The Guardian, Reuters, Axios and MSNBC, in November 2023, alleging they defamed him by incorrectly reporting that Truth Social lost $73 million from its launch in early 2022 through mid 2023. Many outlets, including Forbes, corrected their stories to say Truth Social had lost $31.6 million since its inception. In January 2023, Trump sued journalist Bob Woodward, publisher Simon & Schuster and parent company Paramount Global for nearly $50 million, claiming Woodward published recordings of his interviews with Trump for his book 'Rage' without Trump's permission. Trump in December also sued the Des Moines Register, its parent company, Gannett, and its former pollster, Ann Selzer, over a Selzer poll shortly before the election that found Trump would lose Iowa by three to four points, only for him to win the state by 13 points. Trump alleged the poll amounted to election interference and a violation of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. The paper and Selzer filed motions to dismiss the suit in February, and the Register alleged the law only applies to 'consumer merchandise,' and there's no evidence Trump ever purchased anything from the paper. Trump has had mixed results in his legal battles with the press. He settled with ABC News last year in a lawsuit Trump filed when anchor George Stephanopolos said Trump was found liable for 'rape' when a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll. The network agreed to donate $15 million to Trump's presidential library and issue a statement of regret as part of the settlement. A judge in July 2023 dismissed a case he filed against CNN over its use of the term 'the big lie' to refer to his false claims he won the 2020 election and alleged comparisons between Trump and Hitler. F.C.C. Chair Orders Investigation Into NPR and PBS Sponsorships (New York Times) Which media companies has Donald Trump sued? (Reuters) '60 Minutes' Chief Resigns in Emotional Meeting: 'The Company Is Done With Me' (New York Times)
