Voice of America (VOA), under new leadership appointed by former President Donald Trump, is terminating contracts with The Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Kari Lake, a Republican politician and former news anchor herself, announced the decision on social media Thursday, calling the contracts “expensive and unnecessary.” Lake is the Trump administration’s senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA.
Lake estimates the move will save about $53 million. She said that VOA should produce its own news coverage rather than relying on external news providers.
“We should not be paying outside news organizations to tell us what the news is,” Lake said. “With a nearly billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves. And if that’s not possible, the American taxpayer should demand to know why.”…