Michael Pack

Michael Pack is an American conservative filmmaker.[1] President Donald Trump nominated him as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), and assumed office in June 2020 after Senate confirmation.

Michael Pack
CEO and Director of the U.S. Agency for Global Media
Assumed office
June 2020
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byGrant Turner (Acting)
Personal details
Born1954 (age 65–66)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Gina Cappo Pack
Children3
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (BA, JD)

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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4] He served from July 2002 to February 2005. From 2003–2006, Pack served as Senior Vice President for Television Programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.[5] 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.[6]

Pack has collaborated with Stephen Bannon, co-founder of the far-right website Breitbart News.[1] In 2019, Pack produced and directed a documentary about the conservative Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas.[1]

USAGM CEO
Pack at his confirmation hearing in September 2019

In June 2018, it was announced that President Donald Trump intended to nominate Pack as the chief executive officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media,[7] which among other things oversees the Voice of America (VOA). Pack's first confirmation hearing took place on September 19, 2019.[8] On May 8, 2020, Senator Jim Risch moved to schedule a committee confirmation hearing for Pack for the following week.[9] 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.[1] The Senate invoked cloture on Pack's nomination on June 4, 2020, by a vote of 53–39,[10] and it confirmed him the same day[11][12][13][14] by a vote of 53–38.[15]

Pack assumed office over a week after his confirmation partially so his office could be swept for covert listening devices.[16] One of his first actions as USAGM CEO was to fire the heads of the outlets under his purview,[17][18][19] including certain officials favored by conservatives.[20][21] Pack also installed Trump loyalists in leadership positions within the organization and disbanded a bipartisan board that oversees the USAGM.[22][23]

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.[24]

Filmography

Pack has written, directed, and produced numerous documentaries, principally for PBS, as well as corporate and educational films. His major credits include[3]:

  • Hollywood's Favorite Heavy: Businessmen on Prime Time TV, hosted by Eli Wallach (1987)
  • Campus Culture Wars: Five Stories about Political Correctness, narrated by Lindsay Crouse (1993)
  • Hollywood vs. Religion, hosted by Michael Medved (1995)
  • Inside the Republican Revolution: The First Hundred Days, hosted by Don Lambro (1995)
  • The Rodney King Incident: Race and Justice in America, narrated by Robert Prosky (1998)
  • The Fall of Newt Gingrich, narrated by Blair Brown (2000)
  • Rediscovering George Washington, hosted by Richard Brookhiser (2002)
  • God and the Inner City, narrated by Phylicia Rashad (2003)
  • Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton, hosted by Richard Brookhiser (2011)
  • RICKOVER: The Birth of Nuclear Power, narrated by Joan Allen (2014)
  • Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in his Own Words (2020)
Future releases
  • The Last 600 Meters, to be released

References
  1. Edmondson, Catie; Wong, Edward (2020-05-08). "With Push From Trump, Senate Moves to Install Contentious Filmmaker at U.S. Media Agency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  2. June 23; English, 2020Click to read this article in Spanish Click to read this article in (2020-06-23). "On Trump's Latin America team: Trump nominates Mauricio Claver-Carone to head the IDB". Global Americans. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
  3. "Manifold Productions - Films". www.manifoldproductions.com. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  4. "National Endowment for the Humanities Advisory Board Gains Five New Members". National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  5. "Current.org | Michael Pack named CPB program chief, 2003". current.org. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  6. "Claremont Institute | Recovering the American Idea". www.claremont.org. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  7. "Trump to Nominate Michael Pack as Next BBG CEO". NPR. June 3, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2018. President Donald Trump plans to nominate conservative filmmaker and documentarian Michael Pack as the next head of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the White House says.
  8. Schwartz, Brian (September 20, 2019). "Trump's nominee to lead federal media agency funded a private company with donations from his nonprofit". CNBC.
  9. Edmondson, Catie; Wong, Edward (May 8, 2020). "With Push From Trump, Senate Moves to Install Contentious Filmmaker at U.S. Media Agency" – via NYTimes.com.
  10. "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress - 2nd Session". www.senate.gov.
  11. "Republican-led Senate confirms divisive Trump broadcasting nominee Pack". June 4, 2020 – via www.reuters.com.
  12. Edmondson, Catie (June 4, 2020). "Senate Confirms Conservative Filmmaker to Lead U.S. Media Agency" – via NYTimes.com.
  13. CassataBioBio, Donna Cassata closeDonna. "Senate confirms Trump nominee to lead agency overseeing VOA despite investigation". Washington Post.
  14. "Senate confirms Trump's pick to lead Voice of America". AP NEWS. June 4, 2020.
  15. "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress - 2nd Session". www.senate.gov.
  16. Ellison, Sarah (June 19, 2020). "How Trump's obsessions with media and loyalty coalesced in a battle for Voice of America". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  17. Lee, Matthew (June 17, 2020). "US broadcasting chief fires agency heads in major reshuffle". Associated Press. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  18. Kelly, Laura (June 18, 2020). "Trump appointee ousts multiple officials within US media agency: reports". The Hill. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  19. Folkenflik, David (June 18, 2020). "Trump's New Foreign Broadcasting CEO Fires News Chiefs, Raising Fears Of Meddling". NPR. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  20. Lee, Matthew (June 18, 2020). "Trump global media chief faces GOP backlash over firings". Associated Press. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  21. Kelly, Laura (June 20, 2020). "Trump's new head of US media agency under fire from both sides". The Hill. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  22. Schwartz, Brian (2020-06-17). "Federal media chief Michael Pack installs Trump loyalists to leadership posts, memo says". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  23. Wong, Edward (2020-06-17). "New Conservative Media Chief Dismisses Heads of U.S.-Funded News Outlets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-18.
  24. King, Colbert (2020-05-15). "Did Trump's pick to lead the VOA misuse nonprofit funds? D.C.'s AG is on it". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
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