The Wrongologist

What’s
Wrong Today:

For
65 years, the US government was barred by law from acting as a news outlet inside
America. It was restricted to providing news overseas, through the Voice of
America, Radio Free Europe and other outlets operated by the Broadcasting Board
of Governors (BBG), an independent federal
agency supervising all US government-supported, civilian international media.

The
law that prevented this was the Smith-Mundt act of 1948. Smith-Mundt was amended
numerous times over the years.  In 1972, Senator
J. William Fulbright (D-AR) authored one of the most significant amendments. Fulbright
was no friend of Voice Of America and Radio Free Europe and moved to restrict them from being used domestically,
saying they:

In 1985, Senator
Edward Zorinsky’s (D-NE) amendment blocked taxpayer access to materials of the
US Information Agency (USIA),
even by requests under the Freedom of Information Act. (The USIA was replaced by the
BBG in 1999). Zorinsky compared the USIA to an organ of Soviet propaganda
saying it should be kept out of America to distinguish the US “from
the Soviet Union where domestic propaganda is a principal government
activity.”

Zorinsky
and Fulbright sold their amendments using a sensible argument: American taxpayers shouldn’t be funding
propaganda directed at American audiences.

In
May of 2012, the Wrongologist warned that Congress was considering an
amendment to Smith-Mundt that would eliminate the ban on domestic
dissemination of propaganda materials produced by the State Department and
the Pentagon. The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 was passed as part of
the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, and went into effect on July 2.  

Now, John
Hudson of Foreign Policy reports that the
result is an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded
radio and TV programs for domestic US consumption: 

It started
with BBG broadcasts on local radio stations in the US. The agency is trying to
reach Diaspora communities, such as St. Paul Minnesota’s large Somali expat community.

But if
anyone needs a reason for the dangers of domestic propaganda efforts, we just saw a reminder. The Washington Post exposed a counter propaganda program by the Pentagon that
recommended posting comments on a US website run by a Somali expat with readers
opposing al-Shabaab,
the Somali-based al-Qaeda affiliate. From WaPo:

There are issues here
for every citizen to consider:

• There will be no real oversight
  of the people in our government who will put out this information

• There will be limited
  checks and balances

• No one will know if the
  information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false

The BBG of
course, has an alternative view, that the reform has a transparency benefit as
well. Americans will be able to know more about what they are paying for with
their tax dollars – greater transparency is a win-win for all involved.  

Maybe.

Hudson
reported on meeting with BBG spokeswoman Lynne Weil, who insists BBG is not a
propaganda outlet, and its flagship services such as VOA present fair and
accurate news:

So goes
the thought bubble: Now that the BBG’s materials can be broadcasted by local
radio stations and TV networks, they won’t be a complete mystery to Americans. And
what are the chances that America winds up saying: “Some of this stuff is
really good?”

Few events speak
more clearly to the creeping fascism in American politics than the assertion
by Congress and the BBG, that allowing DoD and the State Department to offer us
government propaganda as news, “provides transparency”, or “lets Americans know
where their tax dollars are going”.

A final
point: Last year Wired
Magazine
reported that the Defense Department was trying to seek out “persuasion
campaign structures and influence operations” using social media like Twitter,
Facebook and Tumblr. They established the Social Media in Strategic
Communication (SMISC) program to learn about and exploit social media
techniques. SMISC is designed to quickly flag rumors and emerging themes on
social media, figure out who’s behind it and counter the message.

You can be sure that with
the new, improved, modernized Smith-Mundt, there will be much more of the same
from your government: More “fair and balanced”, more propaganda for domestic
consumption by an America that can no longer see through to the truth.

Soon, there will be “suggestions” to the corporate media to run BBG “content”.
Between license renewals, environmental impact statements for new
studios or antenna installations, access to lawmakers and the President
and press junket invites, if the government wants
stations to run their content, you can bet that the media will do it. Given media consolidation, only a few big companies need to be influenced in order to get the latest from VOA into the nightly
news.

Did anyone in
Congress ever read a book on
the Soviet Union during the Stalin period?  

You are watching more of our basic freedoms drain
away, and no one in the Main Stream Media covered it.

 

“This country has come to feel the same when
Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.” –Will Rogers