President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice of Kari Lake to serve as the director of the federally funded broadcaster Voice of America sent a chill through the ranks of the organization, where journalists expressed anxiety about Ms. Lake and what the future could hold.
Several of them said they were concerned about this statement in particular: “Under my leadership, the VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements worldwide,” Ms. Lake wrote on social media late Wednesday evening.
There is one problem, they noted: That is not the mission of Voice of America.
The organization’s charter, signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford, says that Voice of America will “be accurate, objective and comprehensive,” and would represent the whole of the country, not one segment of it.
Mr. Trump’s thoughts about the news media are clear: He calls reporters enemies of the people, derides critical news coverage of him as fake and muses about stripping broadcasters of their licenses. In his quest for control over an independent press, he has chosen Ms. Lake, a 55-year-old former television anchor who, in her post-news career, has lost political campaigns and often disparaged the press.
The choice of Ms. Lake also shows that Mr. Trump wants to install yet another appointee who has forcefully criticized an organization she could soon lead.
A Voice of America journalist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said on Thursday 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. Many take pride in working for an organization whose journalistic independence has been written into law, that person said.
