Trump’s Plan to Give Rabid Right-Wing Propagandists a Global Megaphone

One of President Donald Trump’s top advisers, Kari Lake, just proposed handing far-right propaganda outfit One America News the keys to the newsroom at Voice of America (VOA), a U.S.-funded global news service. As many in the media knuckle down under a repressive Trump regime, this news is another bad sign for democracy and a free press — both at home and abroad.

One America News is a loud and loyal megaphone for everything and anything Donald Trump — including amplifying his “Big Lie” about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. During general elections, One America News’ founder, Robert Herring Sr., has banned stories about polls that didn’t show Trump in the lead, according to reporting by The Washington Post. It routinely amplifies Trump’s conspiracy theories and doesn’t expend the slightest effort to fact check the president.

Allowing One America News to air its pro-Trump propaganda to VOA’s global audience of more than 360 million people will spread this administration’s authoritarian message worldwide.

Trump’s pattern of First Amendment abuse
This dangerous threat fits neatly into a larger pattern: Since Trump’s inauguration, his administration has abused its authority to bully any news organization that holds the president accountable or questions his far-right agenda. It’s all part of a First-Amendment-defying scheme to transform independent media into White House mouthpieces.

Trump’s ultimatum for the press: Bend a knee before me, or face the consequences. We’re seeing it with the censorship and shakedowns of Trump’s FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, with Trump’s efforts to zero out all public funding for NPR and PBS, and with billionaire media owners like Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong who are all too quick to kiss the ring.

In this most-recent episode, the Trump administration is trying to fire experienced VOA staff, including many journalists, as part of its purge of federal workers from government payrolls — though these moves are being challenged in court.

Many of these actions are blatantly illegal, and likely violations of our First Amendment right to a free press. The VOA charter states clearly that the agency must “serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news” by being “accurate, objective, and comprehensive.” The global outlet has operated with the understanding that its reporting is independent of any strong-arm political pressures from the White House.

“Providing One America News Network to our global audiences makes a mockery of the agency’s history of independent non-partisan journalism,” a former employer of the agency that oversees VOA told NPR.

The graft behind it all
Surrendering the VOA to right-wing conspiracy theorists wouldn’t just turn a global news source into a cruel joke. It’s also an example of the sort of graft that typifies the Trump White House. Gifting a global audience of hundreds of millions to a loyal propagandist will make One America more appealing to advertisers — showing how enabling authoritarianism can be profitable for the few in Trump’s America.

Now that Trump wants to hand One America News the biggest megaphone possible, we need to ask: Are these really the people you want speaking as the voice of America?

The media system Trump and his sycophants envision is decidedly not the one we deserve. Journalists must have the freedom to report news that can inform the public, hold power to account and shine a light on corruption. People have a right to reliable and objective information that allows them to participate fully in democracy.

Independent media is one of the most essential ways we protect democracy from tyranny. With Trump and his cronies constantly on the offensive against the Fourth Estate, it’s time for a broad-based popular movement to demand and defend our right to a free press. 

The Tech and Media Broligarchs Ready to Serve Trump

 

The crime scene was set on Inauguration Day.

President-elect Donald Trump was front and center at the Capitol Rotunda. His family filled the front row. President Biden stood stage left, also surrounded by close family members.

If you think that’s normal, consider the second row.

Rather than the usual file of high-ranking cabinet members and elected officials, Trump held this space for the oligarchy: Side-by-side like vultures on a branch, tech and media billionaires stood in anticipation of their new boss. Their proximity to Trump itself served as a telling predictor of the corruption and decay that’s to come.

The billionaires' row
Closest to Trump stood Elon Musk, who spent at least a quarter-billion dollars during the election for the spot. He presumably offered this largess in exchange for policies and government contracts that could deliver tens of billions of dollars in benefits to Musk properties like Space-X, Starlink and Tesla. Musk transformed Twitter into a MAGA megaphone, and opened the algorithms to neo-Nazis and other bigots and malicious actors who were more than happy to flood X with hate and normalize and defend Trump’s extremism.

To Musk’s right stood Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who bought his company’s spot in the second row via a million-dollar check in support of Trump’s inaugural committee. Pichai’s priorities are to see that the Trump Justice Department abandons two high-profile antitrust lawsuits aimed at breaking Google’s market power. But Pichai was also there to ensure his company has a seat at the table when it comes to shaping AI policy in a Trump-controlled Congress and grabbing some of the billions of dollars in government contracts tied to the advanced technology.

To Pichai’s right stood Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez. Bezos also wrote a million-dollar check to the inaugural committee. But, of course, his pandering goes further back. Prior to the 2024 election, the Washington Post owner spiked the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. He later had Amazon tender a $40 million offer for the rights to produce a documentary on Melania Trump (reportedly outbidding Disney and Paramount). Bezos came for federal contracts as well, seeking among other deals billions in government-launch contracts for Blue Origin, his space venture.

And finally, stood Mark Zuckerberg, who spent the weeks leading up to the inauguration making himself into a pretzel to fit into a shape that Trump might find appealing. That involved almost completely abandoning any prior commitment to content moderation on Meta platforms while mouthing the ridiculous Trumpist belief that fact checking — or any attempt to hold Republicans accountable — is a form of censorship that must be curtailed in the name of free speech.

In addition to writing a million-dollar Meta check for the inaugural committee, Zuckerberg co-hosted the new president during a black-tie reception later in the evening. In exchange, Zuckerberg is hoping for more of the same AI contracts — and expecting Trump to rein in Rep. Jim Jordan and his Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which has targeted Meta for allegedly “censoring conservative viewpoints.”

Not to be left out on the grift, Trump issued a “crypto token” days before his inauguration. By swearing in, $TRUMP had reached a value of $15 billion, nearly tripling the new president’s net worth.

When too few control too much media
With so much easy money lying around, it’s not clear whether Trump will have the time or inclination to actually lead the country — or at least address the concerns of the 49.9 percent of voters who chose him in November, as well as those who didn’t. (In case you’re wondering, those concerns are: 1. The economy/inflation, 2. U.S. democracy and 3. national security.)

During his final presidential address from the Oval Office, Biden warned that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy.” Indeed, Biden was on hand at the Capitol to witness this oligarchy's transcendence, his warnings still ringing in the ears of many.

While these big tech billionaires appeared in the Rotunda to help themselves, they know that Trump will exact a toll in exchange. They are no longer going to act as good stewards of our nation’s media; they never did. They aren’t even obligated to ensure the health and safety of their users, a responsibility they seem to hate. Their role under Trump is simple: Get in on the grift by going along with the MAGA agenda.

Biden warned that “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power... Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.”

The billionaires assembled within reach of the new president were there to assure Trump that they’ll make it so.

Their presence is proof of a systemic failure of the media. A lesson learned: Never again should so few control so many levers of information in our democracy. The work of repairing the damage of the coming years will be hard but essential. But Trump’s inauguration gave a renewed clarity of purpose. A healthy democracy requires a healthy media. And you can’t have that when greedy tech billionaires control far too much of it.