Kari Lake, a television presenter turned failed gubernatorial candidate turned failed Senate candidate, was appointed senior adviser to the US Agency for Global Media — the body that oversees Voice of America — apparently on the theory that persistent electoral defeat is an excellent qualification for running a federal broadcaster. A federal judge has now ruled that Lake acted unlawfully in her management of the agency. This finding will surprise approximately nobody who noticed that the agency's staff were placed on administrative leave, its newsrooms shuttered, and its journalists told their services were no longer required, all in apparent contravention of the laws governing the organisation. The administration has not yet explained which part of 'you are running a congressionally mandated press freedom institution' Lake found ambiguous. Voice of America, founded in 1942 to broadcast facts into authoritarian states, briefly became an institution that needed a court order to resume broadcasting facts. The irony has been noted. Mostly by the journalists who were locked out.