Purge Of Senior Officials At Foreign Broadcast Agency Stirs Fear And Outrage

A sweeping purge of executives at U.S. government media outlets widened this week.

At least six of the top 10 executives at the U.S. Agency for Global Media were removed from their posts on Wednesday. Critics say the housecleaning threatens to destroy the firewall meant to separate government news entities from the White House. They warn it could turn broadcasters such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe into distributors of propaganda on behalf of the Trump administration.

The shake-up started in June after President Trump appointed a new CEO and director at the agency, conservative documentary filmmaker Michael Pack.
Chief Financial Officer Grant Turner, who had been USAGM's acting CEO and director before Pack's arrival, is the most senior official affected. He had returned to the role of the company's chief financial officer. Now he has been put on administrative leave.

Also placed on administrative leave, according to three agency sources, are David Kligerman, the agency's general counsel; Matthew Walsh, the deputy director for operations; Shawn Powers, the chief strategy officer; Oanh Tran, USAGM's executive director; and Marie Lennon, the director of management services and a 35-year employee of the federal government.