TruthOrFake Logo
TruthOrFake
Fact Check: VOA has been rattled with court orders — and discussions of company-wide reductions-in-force.

Fact Check: VOA has been rattled with court orders — and discussions of company-wide reductions-in-force.

Published June 14, 2025
ByFactChecker 1.1 avatarFactChecker 1.1
±
VERDICT
Partially True

# Fact Check: "VOA has been rattled with court orders — and discussions of company-wide reductions-in-force." ## What We Know Recent reports indicate...

Fact Check: "VOA has been rattled with court orders — and discussions of company-wide reductions-in-force."

What We Know

Recent reports indicate that the Voice of America (VOA) has indeed been affected by court orders and discussions regarding potential layoffs. According to a Yahoo News article, the network has been "rattled with court orders" and is facing discussions about company-wide reductions-in-force (RIFs). Furthermore, a report from Politico states that all remaining staff at VOA are expected to receive RIF notices, which suggests that significant workforce reductions are imminent. This aligns with broader trends across federal agencies, where preparations for layoffs have been made in anticipation of court rulings that may lift current injunctions against such actions (Government Executive).

Analysis

The claim that VOA is experiencing turmoil due to court orders and discussions of layoffs is supported by multiple credible sources. The Yahoo News article highlights that the network is currently navigating legal challenges, which have contributed to uncertainty regarding its future. Additionally, the Politico report confirms that termination notices are expected to be issued to all remaining employees, indicating a serious consideration of workforce reductions.

However, while the reports are credible, it is essential to consider the context. The discussions of RIFs at VOA are part of a larger initiative across various federal agencies, as noted in the Government Executive article. This broader context suggests that while VOA is indeed facing challenges, it is not isolated in its situation; many federal agencies are preparing for similar actions due to ongoing legal and administrative pressures.

The reliability of the sources is generally high, with established news organizations like Yahoo News, Politico, and Government Executive providing the information. However, it's important to note that the situation is evolving, and the specifics of the layoffs and court orders may change as new developments arise.

Conclusion

The claim that "VOA has been rattled with court orders — and discussions of company-wide reductions-in-force" is Partially True. While it is accurate that VOA is facing court orders and potential layoffs, this situation is reflective of broader trends affecting multiple federal agencies. The context of these discussions and the legal environment surrounding them is crucial for understanding the full scope of the situation.

Sources

  1. Agencies ready to move quickly on RIFs if court block falls
  2. Here's what's ahead with mass layoffs at federal agencies
  3. 如何用收音机（德生）在国内收听BBC、VOA？
  4. US scrambles to bring back VOA's Persian service amid ...
  5. 「2025.03.15」如何看待美国国际媒体署(USAGM)宣布美国之 ...
  6. Termination notices expected to go out to all remaining ...
  7. 有哪些像 VOA、BBC 的英语听力网站值得推荐？
  8. Voice of America’s remaining 800 employees to get termination notic…

Have a claim you want to verify? It's 100% Free!

Our AI-powered fact-checker analyzes claims against thousands of reliable sources and provides evidence-based verdicts in seconds. Completely free with no registration required.

💡 Try:
"Coffee helps you live longer"
✓100% Free
✓No Registration
✓Instant Results

Comments

Leave a comment

Loading comments...

More Fact Checks to Explore

Discover similar claims and stay informed with these related fact-checks

🔍
Partially True
🎯 Similar

Fact Check: Paul Krugman Paul Krugman We’re All Rats Now Time to take a stand, again, against racism Paul Krugman Jun 30, 2025 Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in New York’s Democratic primary has created panic in MAGAland. Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s deportation policies, waxed apocalyptic: Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, declared that New York is about to turn into “Caracas on the Hudson.” And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama basically declared New York’s voters subhuman, saying: These inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt. And it’s time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers that are working very hard every week to pay taxes. These reactions are vile, and they’re also dishonest. Whatever these men may claim, it’s all about bigotry. Miller isn’t concerned about the state of New York “society.” What bothers him is the idea of nonwhite people having political power. Bessent isn’t really deeply worried about Zamdani’s economic ideas. But he feels free, maybe even obliged, to slander a foreign-born Muslim with language he would never use about a white Christian politician, even if that politician were (like some of his colleagues in the Trump administration) a total crackpot. And while Tuberville stands out even within his caucus as an ignorant fool, his willingness to use dehumanizing language about millions of people shows that raw racism is rapidly becoming mainstream in American politics. Remember, during the campaign both Trump and JD Vance amplified the slanders about Haitians eating pets. And now that they’re in office, you can see the resurgence of raw racism all across Trump administration policies, large and small. You can see it, for example, in the cuts at the National Institutes of Health, which are so tilted against racial minorities that a federal judge — one appointed by Ronald Reagan! — declared I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this. You can see it in the renaming of military bases after Confederate generals — that is, traitors who fought for slavery. You can even see it in a change in the military’s shaving policy that is clearly custom-designed to drive Black men — who account for around a quarter of the Army’s new recruits — out of the service. So racism and bigotry are back, big time. Who’s safe? Nobody. Are you a legal immigrant? Well, the Supreme Court just allowed Trump to summarily strip half a million U.S. residents of that status, and only a fool would imagine that this is the end of the story. Anyway, when masked men who claim to be ICE agents but refuse to show identification are grabbing people off the streets because they think those people look illegal, does legal status even matter? Does it even matter if you’re a U.S. citizen? And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to massively increase ICE’s funding — basically setting up a huge national secret police force. Now, maybe you imagine that you yourself won’t suffer from this new reign of bigotry and imagine that everyone you care about is similarly safe. But if that’s what you think, you’re likely to face a rude awakening. I personally don’t have any illusions of safety. Yes, I’m a native-born white citizen. But my wife and her family are Black, and some of my friends and relatives are foreign-born U.S. citizens. Furthermore, I’m Jewish, and anyone who knows their history realizes that whenever right-wing bigotry is on the ascendant, we’re always next in line. Are there really people out there naïve enough to believe MAGA’s claims to be against antisemitism, who can’t see the transparent cynicism and dishonesty? The fact is that the Trump administration already contains a number of figures with strong ties to antisemitic extremists. The Great Replacement Theory, which has de facto become part of MAGA’s ideology, doesn’t just say that there’s a conspiracy to replace whites with people of color; it says that it’s a Jewish conspiracy. So I’m definitely scared of what the many antisemites inside or with close ties to the Trump administration may eventually do. And no, I’m not frightened at all by the prospect that New York may soon have a somewhat leftist Muslim mayor. Anyway, my personal fears are beside the point. Everyone who cares about keeping America America needs to take a stand against the resurgence of bigotry. Because the truth is that we’re all rats now. MUSICAL CODA Discussion about this post Michael Roseman Jun 30 Edited For a while, American bigotry was ashamed of itself. Or pretended to be. Now it runs the government. Reply Share 106 replies Megan Rothery Jun 30 Edited Take a stand - Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️‍🩹🤍💙 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk Reply Share 31 replies 852 more comments... No posts Ready for more? © 2025 Paul Krugman Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice Start writing Get the app Substack is the home for great culture

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Paul Krugman Paul Krugman We’re All Rats Now Time to take a stand, again, against racism Paul Krugman Jun 30, 2025 Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in New York’s Democratic primary has created panic in MAGAland. Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s deportation policies, waxed apocalyptic: Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, declared that New York is about to turn into “Caracas on the Hudson.” And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama basically declared New York’s voters subhuman, saying: These inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt. And it’s time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers that are working very hard every week to pay taxes. These reactions are vile, and they’re also dishonest. Whatever these men may claim, it’s all about bigotry. Miller isn’t concerned about the state of New York “society.” What bothers him is the idea of nonwhite people having political power. Bessent isn’t really deeply worried about Zamdani’s economic ideas. But he feels free, maybe even obliged, to slander a foreign-born Muslim with language he would never use about a white Christian politician, even if that politician were (like some of his colleagues in the Trump administration) a total crackpot. And while Tuberville stands out even within his caucus as an ignorant fool, his willingness to use dehumanizing language about millions of people shows that raw racism is rapidly becoming mainstream in American politics. Remember, during the campaign both Trump and JD Vance amplified the slanders about Haitians eating pets. And now that they’re in office, you can see the resurgence of raw racism all across Trump administration policies, large and small. You can see it, for example, in the cuts at the National Institutes of Health, which are so tilted against racial minorities that a federal judge — one appointed by Ronald Reagan! — declared I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this. You can see it in the renaming of military bases after Confederate generals — that is, traitors who fought for slavery. You can even see it in a change in the military’s shaving policy that is clearly custom-designed to drive Black men — who account for around a quarter of the Army’s new recruits — out of the service. So racism and bigotry are back, big time. Who’s safe? Nobody. Are you a legal immigrant? Well, the Supreme Court just allowed Trump to summarily strip half a million U.S. residents of that status, and only a fool would imagine that this is the end of the story. Anyway, when masked men who claim to be ICE agents but refuse to show identification are grabbing people off the streets because they think those people look illegal, does legal status even matter? Does it even matter if you’re a U.S. citizen? And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to massively increase ICE’s funding — basically setting up a huge national secret police force. Now, maybe you imagine that you yourself won’t suffer from this new reign of bigotry and imagine that everyone you care about is similarly safe. But if that’s what you think, you’re likely to face a rude awakening. I personally don’t have any illusions of safety. Yes, I’m a native-born white citizen. But my wife and her family are Black, and some of my friends and relatives are foreign-born U.S. citizens. Furthermore, I’m Jewish, and anyone who knows their history realizes that whenever right-wing bigotry is on the ascendant, we’re always next in line. Are there really people out there naïve enough to believe MAGA’s claims to be against antisemitism, who can’t see the transparent cynicism and dishonesty? The fact is that the Trump administration already contains a number of figures with strong ties to antisemitic extremists. The Great Replacement Theory, which has de facto become part of MAGA’s ideology, doesn’t just say that there’s a conspiracy to replace whites with people of color; it says that it’s a Jewish conspiracy. So I’m definitely scared of what the many antisemites inside or with close ties to the Trump administration may eventually do. And no, I’m not frightened at all by the prospect that New York may soon have a somewhat leftist Muslim mayor. Anyway, my personal fears are beside the point. Everyone who cares about keeping America America needs to take a stand against the resurgence of bigotry. Because the truth is that we’re all rats now. MUSICAL CODA Discussion about this post Michael Roseman Jun 30 Edited For a while, American bigotry was ashamed of itself. Or pretended to be. Now it runs the government. Reply Share 106 replies Megan Rothery Jun 30 Edited Take a stand - Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. Use/share this spreadsheet as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, as well as those in others. Use your voice and make some “good trouble” ❤️‍🩹🤍💙 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13lYafj0P-6owAJcH-5_xcpcRvMUZI7rkBPW-Ma9e7hw/edit?usp=drivesdk Reply Share 31 replies 852 more comments... No posts Ready for more? © 2025 Paul Krugman Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice Start writing Get the app Substack is the home for great culture

Jul 20, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: Bove suggested DOJ lawyers defy court orders regarding deportations.
Unverified
🎯 Similar

Fact Check: Bove suggested DOJ lawyers defy court orders regarding deportations.

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Bove suggested DOJ lawyers defy court orders regarding deportations.

Jul 15, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: Copper mine in Arizona delayed two months by court
Partially True
🎯 Similar

Fact Check: Copper mine in Arizona delayed two months by court

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Copper mine in Arizona delayed two months by court

Aug 20, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: Deportations Under President Obama Total Deportations Barack Obama deported over 3 million individuals during his two terms from 2009 to 2017. Annual Deportation Records YEAR NUMBER OF DEPORTATIONS 2013 438,421 2014 414.481 2009-2016 Over 3 million total Summary Removals Between 75% and 83% of those deported did not have the opportunity to plead their case in court, as many were removed through expedited processes Comparison with Other Presidents Obama holds the record for the most
Partially True

Fact Check: Deportations Under President Obama Total Deportations Barack Obama deported over 3 million individuals during his two terms from 2009 to 2017. Annual Deportation Records YEAR NUMBER OF DEPORTATIONS 2013 438,421 2014 414.481 2009-2016 Over 3 million total Summary Removals Between 75% and 83% of those deported did not have the opportunity to plead their case in court, as many were removed through expedited processes Comparison with Other Presidents Obama holds the record for the most

Detailed fact-check analysis of: Deportations Under President Obama Total Deportations Barack Obama deported over 3 million individuals during his two terms from 2009 to 2017. Annual Deportation Records YEAR NUMBER OF DEPORTATIONS 2013 438,421 2014 414.481 2009-2016 Over 3 million total Summary Removals Between 75% and 83% of those deported did not have the opportunity to plead their case in court, as many were removed through expedited processes Comparison with Other Presidents Obama holds the record for the most

Jul 31, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: A deportation drive targeting India’s Muslim minority was marked by mass home demolitions, arbitrary detentions, allegations of beatings and a lack of due process, according to interviews with Bangladeshi officials and more than 50 people swept up in the pursuit, as well as a Post review of government data, court documents and video footage.
Partially True

Fact Check: A deportation drive targeting India’s Muslim minority was marked by mass home demolitions, arbitrary detentions, allegations of beatings and a lack of due process, according to interviews with Bangladeshi officials and more than 50 people swept up in the pursuit, as well as a Post review of government data, court documents and video footage.

Detailed fact-check analysis of: A deportation drive targeting India’s Muslim minority was marked by mass home demolitions, arbitrary detentions, allegations of beatings and a lack of due process, according to interviews with Bangladeshi officials and more than 50 people swept up in the pursuit, as well as a Post review of government data, court documents and video footage.

Jul 26, 2025
Read more →
Fact Check: VOA’s Persian service had been shut down as a part of President Donald Trump’s March 15 executive order dismantling U.S.-backed global media.
Partially True

Fact Check: VOA’s Persian service had been shut down as a part of President Donald Trump’s March 15 executive order dismantling U.S.-backed global media.

Detailed fact-check analysis of: VOA’s Persian service had been shut down as a part of President Donald Trump’s March 15 executive order dismantling U.S.-backed global media.

Jun 14, 2025
Read more →
Explore All Fact Checks
Fact Check: VOA has been rattled with court orders — and discussions of company-wide reductions-in-force. | TruthOrFake Blog