Hundreds of employees at the Voice of America (VOA) were notified Friday they are being laid off as President Trump’s administration works to trim down and retool the English-language broadcaster under his close ally Kari Lake.
Lake announced termination notices would be sent to 639 employees at the broadcaster, part of what she called a “long overdue” effort to trim down the “bloated unaccountable bureaucracy” overseeing the outlet.
Lake is a top adviser at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the VOA, Radio Free Europe and a number of other foreign broadcast outlets launched by the federal government after World War II.
The VOA, which at one point had thousands of full- and part-time journalists around the world, will see its the total number of reporters, editors and producers reduced to less than 300 people with Friday’s action, Lake said.
Lake has said her vision for the VOA is for the broadcaster to provide “accurate” and “honest” reporting and that it also won’t feature “Trump derangement syndrome” she and the president contend is present in mainstream media coverage of his administration.
“The agency now operates toward the statutory minimum, lean and focused,” Lake said in her announcement. “This is a clear example of responsible government, cutting waste, restoring accountability, and delivering on the promise to put American taxpayers first.”
Lake’s moves at the VOA have angered staffers at the outlet and sparked outrage by Democrats and First Amendment advocates.
She is slated to testify Wednesday during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media.
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