Hey, you're listening to the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Michael Loinger.

On Saturday, a surprising ruling came down from U.S. District Court Judge Roy C. Lamberth.

The Reagan appointed judge found that Carrie Lake, formerly best known as the loser of two statewide races in Arizona, had acted unlawfully in running the United States Agency for Global Media,

the body that oversees Voice of America and the handful of other government-assisted media outlets.

Here's a recap of some of what she's done so far.

All full-time employees and contractors working for the government-funded

international broadcaster voice of America were put on leave. Also part of the cuts, Radio Free Europe

and Radio Free Asia, organizations whose intention is to provide unbiased news to countries who

otherwise might not have access to it. They broadcast to more than 40 countries, including

Russia, Ukraine, and China.

Programs and broadcasts have been going off the air, and at this hour, the VOA is effectively

silent.

As the judge put it, Carrie Lake, quote, satisfies the requirements of neither the statute

nor the Constitution, potentially making all of her actions this past year null and void.

Lake, who once described herself to a gaggle of reporters as, quote, your worst freaking nightmare, told NPR that she would appeal the ruling.

Last February, when Lake started slashing and burning the 80-year-old service,

I spoke to Nicole Hemmer, a historian at Vanderbilt University. She began by telling me the history

of the VOA and about Robert E. Sherwood, the man who coined the organization's name.

He had seen the rise of fascism in places like Germany and Italy

and had seen the way that radio had enabled that by spreading propaganda across those countries.

And so he came to this idea of Voice of America with that idea that there could be this alternative voice that was

accurate, that was telling the truth, but that was also showing the war through American eyes.

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