How America’s State-Funded Media Can Be a Powerful Tool Against Adversaries: Michael Pack

American Thought Leaders

Jan Jekielek

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Pack is a documentary filmmaker and the president of Palladium Pictures. During Donald Trump’s first presidency, he led the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees America’s state-funded news networks, including Voice of America.

“The budget is something like $900 million,” he says. “It’s only a mid-sized government agency, but it’s one of the largest broadcasters in the world. They’re broadcasting over 70 languages to hundreds of millions of people a week. So it’s really a potent tool, and it’s designed to promote American ideas and values abroad.”

In this episode, we discuss his recent films, the future of media, and how the U.S. government can better leverage public diplomacy as a tool against its adversaries.

“We could do nothing better, really, than to knock [China’s internet] firewall down. I think if people in China had a chance to hear the range of ideas out there, it would change the country more than almost anything else. And it’s not expensive,” he says.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The left, loosely speaking, has invested in culture huge amounts of money since the 60s.
0:05.2	Every university in America has a film school.
0:07.2	They are consciously woke as a general rule.
0:10.1	Michael Pack is a documentary filmmaker and president of Palladium Pictures.
0:14.9	During Trump's first presidency, he led the U.S. Agency for Global Media, USAGM,
0:20.6	which oversees America's state-funded news networks,
0:23.6	including Voice of America.
0:24.6	The five broadcasters that are under the umbrella of USAGM, the budget is something like $900 million.
0:30.6	You know, they're broadcast in over 70 language to hundreds of millions of people a week.
0:35.6	So it's really a potent tool, and it's designed to promote
0:38.6	American ideas and values abroad. In this episode, we discussed his recent films, The Future of Media,
0:44.7	and how the U.S. government can better leverage public diplomacy as a tool against its adversaries.
0:50.1	We could do nothing better, really, than to knock that firewall down. I think of the people in China had a chance to hear the range of ideas out there. It would change the country. And it's not expensive. This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Yan Ya Kelek.
1:04.4	Michael Pack, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders. It's great to be back. Thank you for having me on, Jan. Last time we spoke on camera over four years ago, you were the head of the U.S. Agency for Global
1:17.2	Media in Trump 45, previous Trump administration.
1:20.3	We talked about many things.
1:21.5	The big thing we talked about was actually your vision to have USAGM provide balanced information in juxtaposition to what you characterized
1:32.3	as a biased news media in America. Has anything changed?
1:37.3	No, and I think that mission is more important than ever. I mean, it's the core mission
1:42.3	of the five broadcasters that are under the umbrella
1:45.5	of USAGM, which is the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia,
1:51.0	Middle East broadcasting, and Cuba broadcasting. So all five of them, and they're a big entity.
	...

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