Preventing The Death of Truth as We Know It

Kari Lake being at the head of Voice of America is one of MANY alarm bells being rung right now, but it (as well as Elon Musk’s threats to dismantle it) is one of the most under-reported.

(Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

83 years ago on February 1, 1942, a little baby girl of an organization came calmly into this world as a result of international transmissions being necessary for the United States to send out as a means to combat Nazi propaganda.

“This is a Voice from America,” presenter Roland Winter said in German on the first-ever broadcast, according to former VOA Computer Services chief Chris Kern.

“This is a voice from America at war…today, America has been at war for fifty-eight days.”

And then some of the most iconic opening words of any radio broadcast ever were spoken by presenter William Harlan Hale:

“Today, and every day from now on, we will be with you from America to talk about the war. Here in America, we get news from all over the world. The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth.”

Nowadays, Voice of America, or VOA for short, is the longest-running, and also largest, international broadcasters based out of the United States in existence, and one of the most impartial bastions of journalistic truthtelling around. It was signed to law by Gerald Ford in 1976, and the organization has pledged accuracy, objectivity, and comprehensiveness in regards to reporting on ALL of America. You can see the list of accolades right at the top of their Wikipedia page: “digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages,” with a “targeted and primary audience [which] is non-American outside the US borders” that, as of November 2022, hit “326 million adults per week across all platforms.”

And in a recent New York Times article, an anonymous VOA journalist stated that “many of the 2,000 journalists on staff have worked overseas, including from Russia, China and Iran, where the news is controlled by the state” and “many take pride in working for an organization whose journalistic independence has been written into law.”

Voice of America is part of the US Agency for Global Media, which includes Radio Free Europe and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. The single most important aspect you need to know about VOA is that it legally has what they call a “firewall [that] prohibits interference by any US government official in the objective, independent reporting of news.” Basically: they are legally bound to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

To put it simply: remember a couple articles ago when I called The Uncensored Library in Minecraft one of the last bastions of a free and fair global press? If you don’t, it is. And if you do, think about how incredible that library is… and then make it a real organization. That’s VOA.

So, of course, on December 11, 2024, President Trump announced that his pick for the director of Voice of America would be former TV news anchor (of course) and failed Republican Party gubernatorial and senate candidate Kari Lake.

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

As Katie Rogers put it for the New York Times, Trump’s announcement “sent a chill through the ranks of the organization, where journalists expressed anxiety about Ms. Lake and what the future could hold.” The reason why?

Because right out of the gate, Kari Lake has pledged to effectively undo nearly a century of impartiality, with one statement:

“Under my leadership, the VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements worldwide.”

Talk about missing the point of the job you’re applying for entirely. This would be like when I brought Jed onboard at Under the Desk News, if I asked him why he was interested in working alongside me, and he said he wanted to PICK UP THE CRUMPLED PAPER under my desk.

It’s a journalism gig, not a janitor gig, Jed!!!

JEDITOR’S NOTE: What’s the difference? Har har har

But what is it about Kari Lake that makes her such a dangerous choice to lead Voice of America? Well, friends, lemme tell ya something…

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THE COMPLICATED BACKSTORY OF KARI LAKE:

Kari Lake, like many of the people involved in Donald Trump’s second administration, has a bit of a paradoxical backstory. Back in 2022, Lake went viral during a campaign stop for referring to reporters as “monsters,” while calling for the press to be defunded. She has made countless dubious and outright false claims about everything from transgender folks to election security to even the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

But she, actually, has a background in journalism. An extensive one. And it’s no secret that her status as an evening anchor in Arizona for a Fox affiliate is how she made her name.

What IS a bit of a secret, even though it’s written plain as day everywhere that reports on her, is that Kari used to be a much more compassionate and, dare I say, LIBERAL reporter. I mean, she donated to John Kerry, and her family donated to Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign, which coincided with her brief foray into being a registered Democrat. In fact, one former colleague told Phoenix Magazine reporter Craig Outhier that she was a self-described “Obama-supporting Buddhist.” Those are VERY funny words to describe Kari Lake in 2025.

and if you google that terminology, you will instead find Obama SUPPORTING Buddhism

But even her actual reporting used to be far more compassionate than she would have you believe now!

Take, for instance, this passage from a 2022 New York Times profile on her failed gubernatorial campaign:

“Richard Stevens, who performs as the popular drag queen Barbra Seville, said Ms. Lake used to invite him as a news contributor to comment on L.G.B.T.Q. issues. He recalled watching Ms. Lake argue in defense of undocumented immigrants on air. She often came to his drag shows, he said, and the two became close. He also performed as Ms. Seville at her house, including in front of her children, he said.

“Kari is not afraid of drag queens, Kari is not afraid of gay people,” Mr. Stevens said, calling Ms. Lake “an opportunist.” “I have had every reason to believe that she is as liberal as me.””

A mindset supported by a CNN analysis of her Facebook page, where it turns out back in 2015, she wrote,

“I thought [Caitlyn Jenner’s] speech at the ESPYS was very moving. I am absolutely rooting for anyone who makes the difficult decision to transition. It is a decision that is never made lightly. The point is this is her life.”

And in later comments wrote,

“There are a lot of young people coming up today facing the same difficult dilemma needing support so we don’t have so many suicides in this group of individuals. No one is asking you to transition, they are just asking for a little bit understanding or support.”

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KARI THE AVID MISINFORMATION & DISINFORMATION SPREADER:

I say all of this as an introduction to the fact that Kari Lake, known once for being a reassuring presence onscreen, became the type of person to tweet, “A child’s gender is determined by God at conception, NOT by some Woke Teacher in the 3rd grade. This insanity must end.” She became the type of person to tweet, “They kicked God out of schools and welcomed the Drag Queens. They took down our Flag and replaced it with a rainbow. They seek to disarm Americans and militarize our Enemies. Let’s bring back the basics: God, Guns & Glory.”

And even worse, her friend Barbra Seville? She called him a fucking groomer on her Twitter page without evidence, just for criticizing her.

Why are you taking a photo with a “groomer”, Kari?

When THAT became a controversy, she blamed “The Alphabet Mafia.”

This is all an introduction to the two big points of this section I want you to walk away with:

1. Kari Lake is an avid spreader of mis- and disinformation.

2. Her track record proves that she is no longer a trusted voice, and should never be taken seriously again.

We could spend all day talking about the many, many lies of Kari Lake. The Phoenix Magazine profile I mentioned earlier refers to a campaign rally where she “takes a swipe at COVID-19 mask laws and CDC policy and quaintly name-drops Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine,” as well as another where she discusses her apathy for the “sham election” of Joe Biden, while in the same breath saying Democrats have a “demonic agenda.” We could talk about her climate change denial. Or that time she called the Red for Ed movement, a movement that sought more funding for education via strikes and protests, a "big push to legalize pot" (it was not).

But what I really want to focus on is why Kari Lake lost her 2024 U.S. Senate race. A huge shoutout to Paige Oamek at New Republic for perfectly documenting the exact moment Kari Lake lost her race: during a debate with eventual winner Ruben Gallego.

As Oamek humorously writes, it all began while a casual discussion of Lake’s climate change denial was being discussed. Gallego decided to use this as an opportunity to pivot into Lake’s ELECTION denial.

“I give you one minute. You have one minute. Will you finally tell the people of Arizona, did you win or lose that election?” he asked.

To which Lake responded, “Can we, can I talk about water really quickly? Because I thought we were gonna do water.”

You see, in case you didn’t know, Lake took after her buddy Trump and began to loudly, and publicly, claim that she had in fact WON her 2022 gubernatorial election - you know, the one she actually lost by over 17,000 votes? That’s a lot of votes to manufacture, Kari. What’s that? Illegal noncitizen voting, you say? You mean the “illegal noncitizen voting” your buddies at the Heritage “Project 2025” Foundation found constituted 85 cases… TOTAL… between 2002 and 2023?

I’ll never get sick of pointing out that the Heritage Foundation themselves have THE most conservative estimate of an essentially non-zero problem they claim is much bigger than it is. For perspective on what a pathetically small number that is, there are more shark attacks reported in the span of two years than there are illegal noncitizen voters in America over the course of TWENTY years.

there are more bloodthirsty sharks than there are noncitizen voters, according to the authors of Project 2025 (Photo by Bernd Weißbrod/picture alliance via Getty Images)

So, if not noncitizens, then what? You see, election denialism has essentially become Kari Lake’s entire brand. She denied the results of her gubernatorial election and claimed everything from “voter disenfranchisement” to “double ballots” as a reason for her election being “stolen,” all while her campaign continued to raise money to fight the results. Jim Small at the Arizona Mirror actually wrote quite an illuminating story about this, but you can actually get all the ammo you need from the title and dek alone:

“Election denial is lucrative: Kari Lake raised $2.5 million after Election Day. Donors wanted to help her overturn the election, but less than 10% of Lake’s post-election spending went to lawyers.”

OUCH.

Later in the debate covered by New Republic, Ruben Gallego backed Kari Lake into a corner more than once at that debate, with him slamming her for wanting to enforce an Arizona abortion ban law from the year 1864 that did not have exceptions for sexual assault or incest. At one point, Kari tried to save face by bragging about her relationship with Donald “Jump by House of Pain” Trump, stating he called her “Border Kari” as a result of her desire to “help him build that border wall and secure the border.”

To which Gallego responded:

“You’ve been to Mar-a-Lago more than you have to the border.”

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NONE OF THIS MAY EVEN MATTER IN THE END:

Have you ever seen that YouTube video from Deadspin that overlays a number of local news anchors from networks owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group over each other?

Nearly 200 different anchors were given a script to read to their local communities, without acknowledging that they were reading off of a Sinclair-imposed script.

“Our greatest responsibility is to serve our communities. We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that [team] produces. But we’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories… stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think’…This is extremely dangerous to a democracy. At [network] it’s our responsibility to pursue and report the truth. We understand Truth is neither politically ‘left nor right.’ Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever…We work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual… We consider it our honor, our privilege to responsibly deliver the news every day.”

It’s a really grim video if you haven’t seen it. It may also be the future of VOA.

Sinclair is the second largest television station operator in the United States, owning local affiliates for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and many more. They’re also known as one of the biggest mainstream right wing disinformation engines in America, with its executive chairman being a close associate of Donald Trump’s. A 2024 analysis by Sarah Ellison at Washington Post was titled “Sinclair’s recipe for TV news: Crime, homelessness, illegal drugs,” and it covers the countless ways in which Sinclair shapes its news coverage to focus on the darkest aspects of humanity, amplifying a distorted picture of society that isn’t reflective of, well, ANYBODY’S reality.

When John Oliver devotes the half hour to you, you know you’ve done goofed.

This kind of decay has been a decades-long concern against Sinclair, with Timothy Burke even reporting for Deadspin that back in 2004, they required networks to run anti-John Kerry propaganda and made local networks run “Terrorism Alerts.” It’s about as close as you can get to through-and-through propaganda in a setting where people are often NOT aware they are being drip-fed propaganda.

This is exactly what Donald Trump and Kari Lake want Voice for America to be.

CBS News interviewed Kari Lake back in December, where she made her stance on VOA perfectly clear: she has no idea what it even is.

"I'm sure they're doing some great stuff already. I've been looking a little bit here and there. I'm not there to make it Trump TV and MAGA TV. That's not what this is about. That's not what Voice of America is."

What we’re facing here is, once again, an attack on fair and free press in America. Kate Wright at The Conversation, who has extensively covered Trump’s experience over the years with VOA (including “a funding and hiring freeze, foreign journalists’ visas not [being] renewed, and long-serving agency executives suspended without due cause” under the LAST Trump appointee, Brian Pack), points out that despite safewalls put in place under the Biden administration for Voice of America, the organization is already very fragile, and somebody like Kari Lake could be disastrous for them.

But with that being said, there is ONE silver lining, and it lies within that safewall installed. She writes,

“It is worth stressing that although Trump has announced that Lake will be the next VOA director, the president does not actually have the legal authority to make this appointment. That decision rests with a bipartisan board, working with the CEO of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) in which the network is embedded. This structural detail is important because it formed part of a raft of legal measures designed to protect VOA journalists’ editorial freedom from presidential interference. These measures were introduced following an intense wave of politicisation that occurred during the last few months of the first Trump administration.”

Brian Stelter at CNN also adds that Trump has to nominate someone to run the U.S. Agency of Global Media, too. “Then, that person and the advisory board will consider the VOA position,” he writes. “The board’s makeup will tilt in the GOP’s favor next year because one member will come from Trump’s State Department. But the other board members have terms that somewhat insulate them from political pressure.”

And friends, this would be the note of hope I would try to leave us on, if not for the recent threat placed onto VOA in the eleventh hour by everybody’s favorite shadow president… the man who does everything the right has accused George Soros of doing and being (and often far worse). Ladies, fellas, theys, thems, and everyone else: it’s Mister Chaos Emerald himself, Elon Muskkk.

On the artist formerly known as Twitter, “citizen journalist” and alleged grifter Mario Nawfal reported that the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions, Richard Grenell referred to Radio Free Europe and VOA as “state-owned media…filled with far left activists” that needed to be shut down. Okay. And? Why is V parroting something a weird alleged grifter is saying online?

Well. Elon quote-tweeted this word salad, saying,

“Yes, shut them down. 1. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Hello?? 2. Nobody listens to them anymore. 3. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”

Elon Musk is not a government official, and he cannot actually “shut VOA down.” But a lot of what Elon has been doing is a good temperature reader on what’s actively being discussed in the Oval Office. There may, in fact, be two terrible roads ahead.

• A road in which Kari Lake has to go through the actual process as set in stone by VOA.

• A road in which VOA doesn’t even need to be led by Lake, because it won’t exist.

The absolute best case scenario we have looking forward, when it comes to VOA, is that the combination of their legal “firewall,” the “safewall” created post-Trump 1.0, and the actual values of VOA will persevere. And we remember that those opening words from William Harlan Hale capture the mission statement of VOA so well that it can’t possibly be deterred:

“Here in America, we get news from all over the world. The news may be good or bad for us – We will always tell you the truth.”

But I can’t lie; this is probably one of the most grim reports we’ve done here on Substack. Barring a complete rejection of Trump at every turn, and gaining the ability to fight people like Grenell and Musk’s interference, VOA may not be long for this Earth.

And IF it survives, it may come out the other end in a fresh sheen of gold paint covering up the axe wounds.