Kari Lake has been pocked by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next director of Voice of America. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the former Arizona-based news anchor would oversee the federally funded media network that broadcasts globally.
Trump announced the appointment on Truth Social, writing: “[Kari Lake] will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who I will announce soon.”
Prior to her new appointment, Lake spent over 20 years as an anchor for Fox’s Phoenix affiliate, KSAZ. In 2021, she left the network to mount a failed campaign for governor of Arizona—an election she unsuccessfully challenged. She ran for the U.S. Senate during the 2024 election cycle, but was defeated by Rep. Ruben Gallego. A staunch Trump supporter, Lake echoed the president-elect’s false claims about voter fraud during the 2020 election cycle.
As head of the VOA, Lake would have the keys to a state-backed media outlet encompassing digital, radio and TV content geared towards an international audience. The outlet broadcasts in over 40 languages and has an estimated reach of more than 354 million people.
How much influence Lake may be able to exert on the VOA will be something to monitor. The broadcaster is backed by a charter drafted in 1960 and signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, which states that it will serve as “a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news.”
“VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society,” the charter notes. “[It] will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.”
As CNN media analyst Brian Stelter notes, it’s rare for a U.S. president to choose the head of the VOA. And journalists within the organization have no small amount of trepidation about Lake taking charge. “We’re hoping that the guardrails will hold,” a source told CNN.
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