Biden ousts controversial head of US Agency for Global Media
Michael Pack, the controversial CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), has resigned from his post.
USAGM said in a statement on Thursday that Pack resigned Wednesday after being notified by the Biden administration that he would be removed.
President Biden has nominated Kelu Chao, a veteran journalist who served as program director for Voice of America (VOA), as acting CEO until a permanent replacement is confirmed by the Senate.
In his resignation letter, Pack said he was “solely focused upon reorienting the agency toward its missions,” according to NPR.
Pack further slammed the request for his resignation as a “partisan act,” adding that the agency’s leadership is “meant to be non-partisan, untethered to alternations in the political regime.”
Hey, that Biden guy ain’t all bad! https://t.co/mYZbWr1vNa
— Alberto Miguel Fernandez (@AlbertoMiguelF5) January 20, 2021
Pack’s leadership over USAGM is also marked by a tense relationship with VOA, which often found itself in the spotlight. Most recently, a group of VOA employees filed a whistleblower complaint protesting against allowing then-President Trump’s secretary of State Mike Pompeo to give a speech broadcast on hundreds of the agency’s networks around the world, alleging Pompeo’s remarks amounted to propaganda for the Trump administration.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..