One of the best tools for American diplomacy is being hobbled by the Senate’s inaction on a crucial presidential appointment.
President Trump nominated the eminently qualified Michael Pack nearly a year ago as CEO of the United States Agency for Global Media, formerly known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The agency oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, and other networks providing “straight news” around the world and “to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.”
These outlets in years past have done wonderful work in ensuring the free flow of legitimate information while giving hope to hundreds of millions of people subject to censorship and oppression. It was especially important in fighting communist tyranny during the Cold War, and it remains a valuable tool in promoting freedom and human rights.
Pack’s credentials are sterling. He was senior vice president for television programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from 2003 to 2006, was co-chairman of the International TV Council, and served in a Senate-approved position from 2002-2005 on the National Council of the Humanities. A well-known documentary filmmaker, Pack also was president and CEO of the Claremont Institute, a respected conservative think tank, from 2015-2017. He clearly is amply qualified for the job.
For those good reasons and more, an umbrella group called the Conservative Action Project on Tuesday released a “memo for the [conservative] movement” lamenting that Pack’s nomination has “languished” for so long in the Senate and urging senators to “swiftly confirm” him. Sixty top conservative leaders signed the memo, including former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, former Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, longtime publishing executive Al Regnery, and Kenneth Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state who also was the ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. In that latter post, Blackwell would have seen firsthand how important the U.S. foreign broadcasting agencies are.
I’ve admired Pack’s work for more than 20 years, and I can attest that he has an engaging personality perfectly suited for bringing high-level people together in an important common purpose.
There is absolutely no reason for the Senate not to act on this nomination and all sorts of good reasons to make it a priority. American diplomacy needs to be backed by skilled, intentional efforts to broadcast the American voice to the world’s peoples. Michael Pack has the skills and knows the tune, and it’s time to give him the microphone.
