Here's a little fun fact about the imbroglio at the Voice of America

USAGM CEO Michael Pack has justified turning the agency upside down by invoking the Q of security clearances and possible espionage / con't

Pack has not publicly specified any harm.

To Federalist, he said, “To be a journalist is a great cover for a spy – famous journalists like Kim Philby who worked for the BBC… It’s just a great cover. And from the beginning of the Cold War, even earlier, they’ve been penetrated."

Leave aside that the example of Philby is three generations old. Leave aside that I can't find evidence online that Philby worked for the BBC, though he did act as a reporter.

The problem of Philby wasn't that he penetrated the press. It was that he reached elite ranks of MI6!

Philby served as the head of counter espionage toward end of WW2. Was top liaison at one point with the Yanks.

It was the Russians' penetration of *MI6* that exposed grave state secrets and agents to mortal peril. Not the press

You can find past examples of spies using reporting jobs as cover.

Yet Pack's sole known public example of why his actions are necessary doesn't illustrate the case he's urgently trying to make.