A quick Biden fix: Trump appointees ousted from the top of the US broadcasting agency
- Michael Pack, head of the US Agency for Global Media, and Robert Reilly, director of Voice of America, are out
- The previous head of Radio Free Asia, Bay Fang, one of the first senior USAGM officials Pack forced out last year, has been reinstated
The Biden administration has quickly removed a group of Trump administration appointees from the top of the US government’s global broadcasting arm, amid bipartisan criticism that the Donald Trump loyalists running the agency had undermined its ability to counter propaganda and disinformation, including from China.
In its first week in office, President Joe Biden’s administration has pushed out Michael Pack, the controversial head of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), who had been in office since June. It has also removed Robert Reilly, the director of Voice of America (VOA) radio service who was just appointed in December.
And on Sunday it reinstated a previous head of Radio Free Asia (RFA), Bay Fang, a former journalist and diplomat who was one of the first senior USAGM officials Pack forced out last year.
Pack, who resigned at President Biden’s request on Wednesday – Biden’s first day in office – had become a reviled figure to many lawmakers in Congress who saw him as damaging an agency that is on the front lines of America’s “soft power” competition with China.
In addition to firing a slew of top USAGM staffers who were regarded as experts in their fields, Pack, along with Reilly and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had held that USAGM’s most important role was not to broadcast objective news reports – especially those that might include unflattering information about the US – but to promote US policies.
