The man appointed by Donald Trump to head the US global media agency that oversees Voice of America (VOA) and other state-funded broadcasters has carried out a purge of career officials at the top levels of the organisation and installed Trump loyalists.
The action by Michael Pack appeared to confirm fears that Trump wanted to turn the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) into a loyal state broadcaster of the kind normally found in authoritarian societies.
Pack, a conservative film-maker and ally of right-wing ideologue Stephen Bannon, fired the heads of Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund according to CNN, which quoted an official as calling the dismissals the “Wednesday night massacre”. The head of VOA resigned after Pack won Senate confirmation.
Pack has installed Emily Newman, a former adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, as the new chief of staff, according to CNBC.
Newman issued an all-staff memo announcing the new hierarchy and telling them: “Until further notice, no actions are to be taken, and no external communications are to be made, without explicit approval” of the new executives.
“As feared, Michael Pack has confirmed he is on a political mission to destroy the USAGM’s independence and undermine its historic role,” Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said in a statement quoted by CNN.
“The wholesale firing of the agency’s network heads, and disbanding of corporate boards to install President Trump’s political allies is an egregious breach of this organisation’s history and mission from which it may never recover.”
Eliot Engel, the Democratic chair of House foreign affairs committee, had warned of a coming purge on Tuesday night.
“My fear is that USAGM’s role as an unbiased news organisation is in jeopardy under his leadership. USAGM’s mission is ‘to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy’ – not to be a mouthpiece for the president in the run-up to an election,” Engel said in his statement.
