Acting USAGM CEO Kelu Chao continued her sweep of federally funded international broadcasters to remove leaders linked to former President Donald Trump.
On Friday evening, she fired the recently appointed presidents and boards of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks named by her predecessor, Trump loyalist Michael Pack. Over his seven months there, Pack had embarked on a scorched-earth assault on the agency’s networks, telling conservative media outlets he needed to “drain the swamp” and that its newsrooms were overrun with anti-Trump journalists.
The firings were described by several people with knowledge of the actions and in materials reviewed by NPR. USAGM had no comment.
Unlike Voice of America and the Cuban broadcasters, which are owned by the federal government, these are technically private not-for-profit networks funded by USAGM.
RFE’s Ted Lipien, RFA’s Stephen J. Yates and MBN’s Victoria Coates were appointed by Pack in late December. (Coates’ dismissal was first reported by Politico.)
Lipien was a former VOA official turned sharp critic of USAGM, VOA and the other affiliated networks on a pair of blogs. Yates, a former Idaho GOP chairman, had registered as a lobbyist for Taiwanese government in early December, and was first contacted by Pack’s team for the job one day before his appointment was announced.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us: reaffirm the firewall, the highest standards of professionalism, and the sacred editorial independence and journalistic integrity; and ensure the safety and security of our journalists,” Chao wrote in the memo, obtained by NPR.
Notably, Chao did not once invoke Lipien’s name or those of the presidents of the other not-for-profit networks. Several hours later, she fired them.
