President Donald Trump’s appointment as Voice of America director has liberal heads exploding all over the capitol. Progressives’ beloved propaganda outlet will be firmly in the hands of an ultra-MAGA conservative. Kari Lake is a lot more qualified in the media field than she was for a seat in the Senate.
Voice of America goes conservative
The rabidly left-leaning public media outlet Voice of America is about to get a huge shove to the right. President Donald Trump announced December 11 that “he plans to have Kari Lake, a politician and former Arizona journalist, appointed head of the international government-funded broadcaster.”
He made the proclamation on his Truth Social platform, where he knows it can’t be spun sideways by the left.
Not only is Lake an aggressively vocal conservative and deplorably dedicated supporter of Donald Trump, she’s “a former anchor for a Fox News television station in Phoenix, Arizona.”
She’s also “worked in journalism for 27 years before leaving the profession in 2021 to run for Arizona governor.” By taking charge of America’s public voice on the radio airwaves she can further her state’s position as “standard bearer for America First policies.”
Voice of America falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Along with VOA, USAGM watches over PBS, NPR and other taxpayer funded broadcasters.
“That position is presidentially nominated and requires Senate approval.” Trump will be naming someone to “work closely with Lake” and the Republican controlled Senate is expected to rubber stamp his cabinet picks, en masse.
Credible and accurate journalism
Under the current management, Voice of America and all their sister public media outlets took the position that only left-leaning, progressive, talking points could meet the standard of “credible and accurate journalism.”
Anything conservative, like the suggestion (by yours truly) that NPR wanted to “burn” all the books by White authors, when they “invited” readers to “decolonize” their bookshelves, was met with instant fact checks. That backfired on them horribly when the facts went against them. Total censorship of the entire topic followed.
That’s about the time current Voice of America director Mike Abramowitz started going into damage control mode. He’s now up to DEFCON 4 and full panic. On Thursday, he sent an email to staff to quell their screaming.
He noted “that he read the announcement about Lake Wednesday night and had not been given additional information beyond the social media post.” He’s as clueless as the rest of them but tried to sound reassuring.
“I welcome a smooth transition of power for both USAGM and VOA,” he begins. You can tell he’s expecting to be yanked in front of Congress to do some explaining soon. “I intend to cooperate with the new administration and follow the process.”
If Trump wants to appoint loud-mouthed conservative Kari Lake as VOA Director, he can do it. Lake’s already gloating about it on social media. “Under my leadership, the VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements worldwide.” Voice of America reached out to her but she hasn’t called them back yet.
