Anonymous Voice Of America Employees Protest New Director 

On Monday, a group of anonymous Voice of America employees asked their parent agency to rescind the appointment of their new, “controversial” director.

The Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy group that represents current and former staff members at VOA, sent a letter to U.S. Agency for Global Media CEO Michael Pack on the employees’ behalf. This was five days after Pack brought in Robert Reilly, conservative author and former government official during Republican administrations, to be director of VOA, replacing a 40-year veteran of the agency. Elez Biberaj, who has been at VOA since 1980, was installed as acting director in June 2020 after Director Amanda Bennett and her deputy resigned following Pack’s confirmation. Biberaj returned to his previous post as director of the Eurasia Division.

“Reilly has a troubling history of mismanagement at VOA and he is openly hostile to Muslims and Gays,” wrote David Seide, GAP senior counsel. “His controversial personal beliefs, which have been widely published, jeopardize the credibility and reputation of VOA, its journalists, editors and producers.” Seide called for “the immediate rescission” of Reilly’s appointment. 

The letter listed two books Reilly published in 2014–– one about how “further institutionalization of homosexuality will mean the triumph of force over reason, thus undermining the very foundations of the American Republic,” and another on “the frightening behavior coming out of the Islamic world.”

The views are “wholly inconsistent with the fundamental principle of equal justice under law,” Seide wrote. While Reilly has the right to express such views as a private citizen, designating him to run VOA “sends a terribly awful signal to the rest of the world,” Seide said.

Reilly was VOA director for a year during the George W. Bush administration and the letter cited a New York Times article from August 2002 that said he “resigned abruptly” following “nine months of controversy, particularly over the announcement that he would close five overseas news bureaus.”

According to a Washington Times article from September 2002, also cited in the whistleblowers’ letter, Reilly “caused friction with the board by his management style, which included a heavy reliance on consultants and staffing a high number of positions with loyalists.”

Reilly declined to provide a comment on the letter. 

On Monday, NPR obtained the first note Reilly sent to his staff in which he pledged to abide by VOA’s charter and “resist any political pressure from above that would compromise our mission and the integrity of our news operations.” Unlike other American media organizations, VOA “fosters an understanding of American institutions and the principle behind them,” he wrote.  

He also referenced his published workers that have been getting considerable media attention and said “they are irrelevant to my duties as VOA director, with the possible exception of those about VOA and the broader subject of public diplomacy.”

Pack has been at the global media agency since June and has made various controversial management and personnel moves since then. There have been several lawsuits and for one of them a federal judge issued several preliminary injunctions on November 20, which prevented Pack from getting involved directly in editorial operations, making personnel decisions about journalists, communicating directly with journalists and editors, and investigating any of their stories, The Washington Post reported. It is not clear if installing Reilly will violate the court order. 

Also, earlier this month the Office of Special Counsel determined, as part of an ongoing investigation, there was a “substantial likelihood” that Pack and other top leadership engaged in wrongdoing.

In a Washington Post opinion article on December 11, Bennett, who was director for four years, said Pack “has sown destruction” at the agency and called Reilly a “dangerous choice” to lead VOA. She said she resigned while expecting to be fired.

“Without quick action, Reilly could be around for a very long time — indeed long after President-elect Joe Biden takes office and Pack himself is gone,” Bennett explained. “A recent Supreme Court decision made it possible for Biden, upon assuming office, to immediately remove Pack despite his three-year term. Yet...under legislation just being finalized, a VOA director can only be named or removed by a Senate-confirmed bipartisan board — a board that doesn’t yet exist.”  

The legislation she is referring to is the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which the House and Senate both passed last week with veto-proof majorities. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during a briefing on Tuesday that President Trump still intends to veto it, but was unsure of the timing. He has until December 23 to do so.

The U.S. Agency for Global Media did not respond to Government Executive for comment. 

Correction: This article has been corrected to say that Reilly was director not acting director of VOA.