VOA and OAN Partnership Draws National Attention

15 Replies

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has announced a new partnership wherein Voice of America (VOA) will incorporate content from One America News Network (OAN), a media outlet known for its conservative perspective. This decision, introduced by USAGM senior adviser Kari Lake, aims to provide VOA with additional news resources at no cost. The move has sparked discussions regarding VOA’s commitment to impartial journalism, as outlined in its charter. While proponents highlight potential cost savings and expanded content offerings, critics express concern over the implications for VOA’s editorial independence. This development follows recent operational changes at VOA, including staff reductions and legal challenges concerning its governance.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the following articles:

Note that, at time of posting (May 7, 2025 20:45 UTC), there has been no official USAGM press release (click here to check).

15 thoughts on “VOA and OAN Partnership Draws National Attention”

  1. Fred

    The New York Post article is not conservative, it is the new MAGA propaganda, so blatant it should be repugnant to thoughtful people no matter the country.

    Reply ↓
    1. OmegaPaladin

      Fred,
      That article is hardly red meat ranting. It is making a valid point – VOA is a US government information operation. It’s not many steps removed from propaganda, which is why it is aimed at a foreign audience. That should align with strategic priorities. Imagine if VOA was ripping Obama’s Iran deal while he was negotiating it. That’s not VOA’s job.

      All that said, I am not sure how persuasive OANN would be to an international audience. It seems to be US focused

      Reply ↓
  3. Fred

    Oh great…Kari Lake election denier. Now VOA will be like the Radio Moscow I listened to as a kid!

    Reply ↓
    2. C van Gelder

      Radio Moscow was actually very good at what they did. Their mandate was to present the Soviet viewpoint. But, they never pushed conspiracies. If it was something difficult they just didn’t say anything.

      OAN is not even close to be like Radio Moscow. They are more like RT or what Russian media is today.

      Reply ↓
  4. John Figliozzi

    Conservative? Hardly. OAN is a right wingnut network. Nothing it broadcasts comes close to be truthful. Aren’t the nut cases the US private shortwave transmitters broadcast enough of that sort of thing? Goodbye VOA. You had a nice run but it’s over now.

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  5. Phillip Dampier

    I recall how seriously VoA’s firewall has been respected by administrations from Reagan to Biden. Only one president has been an existential threat to that independence (and lately, the entire external broadcasting output funded with the approval of Congress): Donald J. Trump.

    Much of the animosity has carried over from his first term when VoA journalists asked him some hard questions at press conferences. I received messages from two friends working at VoA who felt pressured on coverage during his first term, and there were efforts to literally outsource part of the VoA newsroom to contract workers in Hong Kong (how times have changed).

    With the petty “Gulf of America” dispute with the AP, Ms. Lake and Mr. Trump have been unimpressed with VoA’s heavy reliance on AP’s news actuality service, which provides a lot of audio stories VoA uses in their programming. VoA’s journalists did most of the coverage themselves in better days, but with budget cuts, layoffs, and resignations, that has gotten harder and harder to maintain. Longtime listeners can hear the budget cuts just by listening to VoA’s output.

    Partnering with OAN is nothing short of an attempt to propagandize VoA programming by using a sycophantic opinion network to peddle MAGA-focused stroking of the president’s ego. OAN is best known for its relentless peddling of Trump’s 2020 election lies. Its integrity can be measured by the number of lawsuits it has had to settle for intentional misreporting of the news, especially about electronic voting machines.

    Do we want the VoA to sound like some paid programming on US commercial shortwave outlets?

    I don’t mind the concept of increasing the amount and diversity of news reports aired on the station. I used to enjoy AFRTS in the 1980s, when it aired many hourly news reports from US radio networks. If OAN had an exclusive interview with the president, that would be legitimate content for news programming. Airing Tucker Carlson’s wild nonsense would not.

    Even Fox News Radio would be a more legitimate content source than OAN.

    Kari Lake is completely unqualified and is simply continuing a campaign of vandalism to destroy VoA and other stations and destroy their credibility. Although most of the fault belongs to the president, the rest of the blame lies with Republicans in Congress who are derelict in their duties to serve as a check and balance on the president and enforce the funding obligations they approved in the budget. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait for the midterms to put the brakes on this.

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  6. Eric Richards

    That concept is horrifying. Republican administrations have tried to influence the BBG/USAGM with varying levels of success, but this is utterly insane.

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  7. Donald Glocka

    Interesting that 5 of the 6 sources that are cited in your article are far left entities.

    Reply ↓
    2. Phillip Dampier

      Calling any of the sources “far left entities” is without merit.

      On the political scale, OAN would be directly opposite the Daily Kos.

      Reply ↓
    3. John Figliozzi

      Well, if you’re idea of centrist is OAN then I guess almost everything else short of Infowars is “far left”.

      Reply ↓

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