Obama repealed the 1948 Smith-Munt Act, which then permitted propaganda to be in broadcasting. It no longer said that it had to be credible.
Obama repealed the 1948 Smith-Munt Act, which then permitted propaganda to be in broadcasting. It no longer said that it had to be credible.
The important thing to take away from this is that the Smith-Munt Modernization Act did not legalize using propaganda on American citizens the way that people like Berge like to pretend. They act like after that point the Pentagon and CIA were taking over every newsroom in the country when in reality the act had nothing to do with anything except a very specific section of the government and it applied to programming that was already being created which is now available in the United States upon request. The act is very clear on page 5, saying, quote, No funds authorized to be appropriated to the Department of State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors shall be used to influence public opinion in the United States. It's a very standard talking point that people on the extreme right wing in the conspiracy world deploy in an attempt to invalidate all media they disagree with, but it just isn't real. Obama did not legalize propaganda in the United States. The act just made it so people in the United States could watch Voice of America if they wanted to.
I know for a fact, and you can easily look it up, that the Smith-Munt Act Modernization Act was modified to allow For the influence, dissemination of propaganda to Americans, which had previously been restricted or prevented by the Smith-Munt Act in the late 40s when it was put into place, when they modernized that, they took away those protections, allowing it to adapt for social media, and then within a few months or just a very short period of time, they came out with the Obama phone.