Senior adviser to the United States Agency for Global Media Kari Lake has announced that One America News Network (OAN) will provide “newsfeed services” for free to USAGM networks, including Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), Radio Martí, and Voice of America (VOA).

The announcement came after weeks of efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the agency. President Donald Trump has issued an executive order mandating that USAGM “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”

That resulted in more than 1,000 employees being placed on leave and the termination of 600 contracts. But U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction in April blocking it.

The decision to offer OAN could greatly expand the potential reach of content from the cable network, which has been a plaintiff in several high-profile libel lawsuits and was dropped by DirecTV and Verizon in 2022. OAN is no longer carried by a major pay TV provider.

[Editor's note: On May 14, 2025 Herring Networks, the parent company of OAN, announced that its networks OAN and AWE would be carried on certain Charter's Spectrum video packages.]

But the agreement has proved controversial and was immediately condemned by VOA staffers. “VOA is not to be the voice of left America nor the voice of right America,” said Steve Herman, chief national correspondent for VOA, who was quoted by the Washington Post. “USAGM cannot dictate [that] VOA run OAN content. It would be a violation of our fire wall and our charter, which are laws,” he said.

In a social media post on X, Lake admitted that “In my current role as Senior Advisor to USAGM, I don't have editorial control over the content of VOA and OCB programming, but I can ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs.”

Lake explained that “This idea came about after OCB suggested we explore OAN as a newsfeed option for the Miami-based, U.S. Government-funded news operation broadcasting to Cuba. At their suggestion, I reached out to OAN, and they offered to provide their newsfeed and video service free-of-charge."

"This is an enormous benefit to the American taxpayer, who is the sole-source of funding for USAGM's news outlets, which broadcast only to international audiences," Lake said. "And every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both.”

Lake described “OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States,” but did not mention controversies surrounding the network.

The network’s promotion of conspiracy theories promoting the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump prompted libel suits from Dominion Voting Systems, Smartmatic and a Dominion executive. OAN settled the suits by Smartmatic and the Dominion executive; the Dominion suit is ongoing.

Following the settlement of the two cases, OAN did not issue a public apology, but it did quietly delete the articles advancing conspiracy theories about Dominion from its website in 2021.

A Southern Poverty Law Center investigation into commentator Jack Posobiec, who was a host on OAN between 2018 and 2021, found that “Posobiec—a Trump favorite—has collaborated with white supremacists, neo-fascists and antisemites for years, while producing propaganda that Trump and his inner circle have publicly celebrated.”

“Jack Posobiec’s extensive ties to white supremacists should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who hasn’t made the connection between Trump’s MAGA movement and hate,” said Michael Edison Hayden, the SPLC senior investigative reporter who covered the story about Posobiec and his ties to white supremacy and the White House.

In recent years, OAN has worked to find an audience with content to the right of Fox News Channel.

A 2021 Pew Research survey found that only 7% of Americans got political news each week from OAN and that their viewers skewed older and less educated.

It found that while Fox News has a core audience of conservative Republicans, it also has large audiences among Democrats. “The much smaller Newsmax and OAN audiences are made up largely of older and White Americans and conservative Republicans,” the 2021 survey found.

PALISADES, N.Y.—The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) has awarded the Video Call Center (VCC) a federal contract for access to VCC’s platform to create interactive video chat-driven TV programs and social video programs, the company announced today.

The government agency will use VCC’s HAT automation system and Caller Queue technology as well as consulting and production support services to create TV and video streaming programs in which audiences participate on camera.

“The VCC is proud to support the USAGM as it explores new techniques to engage with audiences around the world,” said Larry Thaler, CEO of the VCC. “This is a remarkable opportunity that showcases how the comprehensive video-call based production techniques pioneered at the VCC are valued by USAGM to expand the tools it has to interact with audiences.”

The government contract, the first awarded to VCC, will allow USAGM to develop a series of new TV and video productions. Audience members and guests will have the ability to participate in a show in a manner similar to call-in radio but with broadcast-quality video of all participants, the company said.

Under the contract, USAGM will have access to efficient workflows leveraging automation to reduce the number of technical crew members to a minimum. The VCC system includes Caller Queue, which provides the agency with cloud-based waiting rooms branded to each show where callers wait till it’s their turn to appear, it said.

With the system, show producers can see who is waiting, understand what a caller wishes to discuss, prioritize callers, talk to them and select callers to appear on air, the company said.

The contract also gives USAGM access to HVCC’s HAT system that automates tasks typically done by a technical director, audio mixer and graphics operator. Using HAT, a show host or single non-technical producer can produce a program without distraction while the show is on the air. Production teams can be located virtually anywhere around the world, the company said.

HAT uses contextual information about who is speaking to react automatically and switch professional on-air looks, including shot selection, crosstalk boxes, graphics, pacing, dissolves and cuts.

USAGM, formerly called the Broadcast Board of Governors, oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Office of Cuba Broadcasting Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

More information is available on the VCC website.