Michael Pack


Michael Pack is an American conservative filmmaker who is CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media under President Donald Trump. Pack assumed office in June 2020 after Senate confirmation.

Early life and education

Pack was born in New York City. He attended Yale University before earning a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and Juris Doctor from the UC Berkeley School of Law.

Career

Michael Pack founded Manifold Productions, Inc., an independent film production company, in 1977. Through Manifold Productions, Pack has written, directed and produced 13 documentary films on a range of topics.
In 1993, Pack served as Co-Chair of the International TV Council at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In 2002, President Bush nominated and the Senate confirmed Pack to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, which oversees the National Endowment for the Humanities. He served from July 2002 to February 2005. From 2003 to 2006, Pack served as Senior Vice President for Television Programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
From 2015 to 2017, Pack served as President and CEO of the Claremont Institute in Upland, California, and Publisher of its Claremont Review of Books.
Pack has collaborated with Stephen Bannon, former advisor for President Trump, and co-founder of the conservative website Breitbart News. In 2019, Pack produced and directed a documentary about the conservative Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.

USAGM CEO

In June 2018, the White House announced that President Donald Trump intended to nominate Pack as the chief executive officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which among other things oversees the Voice of America. Pack's first confirmation hearing took place on September 19, 2019. On May 8, 2020, Senator Jim Risch moved to schedule a committee confirmation hearing for Pack for the following week. Pack's nomination was contentious, with critics arguing that the mission of VOA would be compromised by installing a conservative partisan as head of the organization. The Senate invoked cloture on Pack's nomination on June 4, 2020, by a vote of 53–39, and it confirmed him the same day by a vote of 53–38.
Pack assumed office over a week after his confirmation partially so his office could be swept for covert listening devices. One of his first actions as USAGM CEO was to fire the heads of the outlets under his purview — among them Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, and the Open Technology Fund — including certain officials favored by conservatives. Pack also installed Trump loyalists in leadership positions within the organization and disbanded a bipartisan board that oversees the USAGM. Pack continued making personnel changes, among other actions. It was reported in July 2020 that the USAGM under Pack would not extend visas for foreign VOA journalists.

Investigation

Pack is the founder and director of the Public Media Lab, a non-profit charitable organization. On May 12, 2020, Senator Robert Menendez raised with District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine the question of whether Pack has unlawfully directed funds from the Public Media Lab to his profit-making company Manifold Productions. According to Menendez, all of the millions of dollars raised by the Public Media Lab have been transferred to Pack's company. In response, Racine indicated that he has initiated an investigation.

Filmography

Pack has written, directed, and produced numerous documentaries, principally for PBS, as well as corporate and educational films. His major credits include:
;Future releases