Appointing Kari Lake as VOA Director?

Barriers to prevent obvious politicization exist, but they can be overcome

I was expecting that my next post here was going to be on the Project 2025 chapter on the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) or a review of a recent article called “The Lonely “I” In DIME: How the US Can Address the Information Challenge of Our Time,” both of which make valid points but are, on the whole, quite bad and unhelpful. Or, maybe I’d publish a short post where I give a name—Armstrong’s Paradox is what I’ve leaned toward—to the ironic misinformation that permeates discussions around government actions against disinformation, resulting in unnecessary and sometimes illogical restraints in dealing with the same. Instead, this will be about how President-elect Trump can put Kari Lake as the Director of the Voice of America (VOA).

Before I begin, since there are many new subscribers (and twice as many followers as subscribers), a relevant intro is in order. I served as a Governor on the formerly-named Broadcasting Board of Governors, now called the USAGM, from 2013 to 2017. Though President Obama nominated me to the bipartisan board, I was a Republican appointee, and my Senate sponsors were Mitch McConnell and the late Tom Coburn.¹ Coburn approached me to serve on the board as a subject matter expert because of my efforts as the executive director of the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. I’ve worked extensively with the State Department, Congress, and the military, including NATO member counterparts. I am honored to have been inducted as an Honorary Member of the Psychological Operations Regiment at USAJFKSWCS.² And, Russia sanctioned me in May 2022. I’ve been actively engaged in and writing about US international information activities, including public diplomacy, for twenty years.

Without discussing Kari Lake’s qualifications or fit to be VOA Director,³ let’s dive into how she can be placed in the position.

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If you’re interested in VOA and how it differs from commercial media, see:

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To start, the legislation abolishing the governance board I was on established a replacement advisory board. The advisory board is to have up to six members, with no more than three from one party. Some minor authorities are vested in this advisory board, but its real power is gatekeeping the hiring and firing of the network chiefs. USAGM has five broadcast entities: VOA, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Radio Free Asia (RFA), the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), and the Middle East Broadcast Network (MBN). The law—specifically, 22 USC 6205(e)1—states the network heads “may only be appointed or removed if such action has been approved by a majority vote of the Advisory Board.”

So, what is this advisory board? The President appoints the members with the advice and consent of the Senate (i.e., they are all Senate-confirmed Presidential appointments). Except, four of the members are selected by Congress. You see, the Chair and the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee each give a list of “at least three” candidates for the President to pick from. The same is true in the House: the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee also each give a list of at least three candidates to the President. This method, which intended to vest some political control in Congress, may increase Congress’s historically low interest in the agency. It also means 2 Republican and 2 Democrat board members. The President selects the two remaining appointees. Since there is a legal limit on party representation, the President selects a candidate of his choosing while the other is a candidate forwarded by the ranking Senator of the other party.

However, advisory board appointments do not expire with the administration. They are on their own calendar. They are appointed to a single four-year term but serve until replaced (or they quit). Right now, there is one vacancy on the board, and I do not know when the terms for the other five will expire or have already expired.

In addition to the six appointed board members, there is the Secretary of State, typically represented by a designee, most likely the largely abandoned and ignored position of the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.⁴

The advisory board website does not list appointment dates, term lengths, or expirations. That information is available by searching the White House nomination announcements, but I’ll leave that research to you, the reader.

Since the board doesn’t appoint but merely approves hiring the VOA Director and the other network chiefs, the USAGM CEO must want Kari Lake. It’s safe to say the current CEO, Amanda Bennett, will not want to appoint Lake. It’s also safe to say the Trump administration will seek to replace Bennett. Whether they do so quickly or not is up to the administration. In the first administration, USAGM was low on the White House priority list, plus Pack had other interests and introduced his own delay in the nomination timeline. The Senate was also not too interested. Will it be different this time around?

We’ll have to see what happens once Trump replaces USAGM’s CEO. Will the advisory board look differently? Will Trump designate a new advisory board chair? He’ll need the Senate’s advice and consent to do that.

Approving an appointment to lead VOA or the other networks requires only a simple majority. For completeness, a quorum for this board is only four members, and the Secretary of State is a member.

Is it possible for Kari Lake to become the Director of the Voice of America? Sure, but I honestly think it’s not going to happen. At the very least, I doubt she’ll wait for the White House to muscle her appointment through the advisory board, which I cannot believe would accept her appointment under any normal circumstance.

By the way, the advisory board can unilaterally fire a network chief. They need only to “consult” with USAGM’s CEO beforehand.

Update 17:05 Dec 12: To make it clear and save you the math: only 3 of the 5 currently serving appointed advisory board members need to vote yes on Lake to allow her through. Or, if one or two members are absent from the meeting, only 2 need to vote yes, assuming the State Department rep votes yes. Again, I don’t know the political make-up of the current board, nor do I assume a Republican member will automatically vote yes. Once Trump appoints the USAGM CEO, the hurdle to appoint Kari Lake the Director of the Voice of America would come down to two or three people on the advisory board.

Thanks for reading.

1. I’d have to look it up to be sure, but I think I technically replaced Dana Perino on the board.

2. This is obviously pronounced “swicks,” which is faster than saying the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

3. Any discussion would be short: she has none and is unfit. In the first Trump administration, after the White House announced Michael Pack as USAGM CEO, I spoke with Brian Stelter on his Reliable Sources program about Pack’s lack of fitness for that job. A then-colleague was upset with my comments. During our discussion where she defended Pack, she admitted Pack wasn’t a good manager. I laughed.

4. I have tracked the lack of a confirmed appointment to the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs office since 2011. The office has lacked a confirmed appointment 45% of the days since the office was established in 1999 as the successor to the Director of the US Information Agency. See https://mountainrunner.substack.com/p/r-changes-coming (from 2023).