US Gov. Allowed to Propagandize Americans: Smith-Mundt Dead

[expandspanos]

The Smith-Mundt Act was originally devised in order to make sure Americans wouldn't have government propaganda focused domestically at Americans- only used externally at enemies.

That has now been changed.

Our politicians decided they didn't like Americans not being fed 100% Goverment propaganda, and have now overturned the Smith-Mundt Act, allowing our government to subject American citizens to all the propaganda they want- and keep in mind they've had decades of experience producing propaganda now- They learned from the Nazis etc.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewmEzFaA5w[/youtube]

Passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act(H.R. 4310), signed by Obama on 12/29/2012.

HR 5736 - the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012

This amendment would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences and was inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, This would "strike the current ban on domestic dissemination" of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the independent Broadcasting Board of Governors, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee's official website. This little change to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government's misinformation campaigns.

The US government has for many decades been allowed to dish out propaganda to foreign countries. But now, through this bill, propaganda that was supposed to target foreigners could now be aimed at Americans, reversing a longstanding policy. Bill was finally passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act [NDAA 2013] HR 4310, signed by Obama on 12/29/2012. Pages 326-328

[AZGrizFan]

Awesome. Orwell rocks.

[CID1990]

You mean we HAVEN'T been getting gummint propaganda all along?


Sent from the center of the universe.

[DSUrocks07]

You mean we HAVEN'T been getting gummint propaganda all along?


Sent from the center of the universe.

I'm guessing that this is referring to government propaganda directly, instead of by proxy (selective info leaks to media outlets).

I always wondered what an official US Treasury department commercial would look like.

[Ivytalk]

Meh. We're already getting government Obamacare ads. What's the big deal here?

[CID1990]

News flash for ya Spanky:

Americans have always been able to access VOA. Only now you might be able to get it on NPR, which, having heard a lot of VOA, tells me that it might swing NPR to the right some.


Sent from the center of the universe.

[expandspanos]

It's just the precedent- Now it's completely okay for say C-Span's Washington Journal to just have pro-government staged callers call in and talk about how great everyone in the Government is doing for example.

Now it's completely legal for NBC to show a nightly news that is 100% pro-government propaganda (not that they weren't already very pro-government and full of shit) but now it's legal.

Now it's legal to have every single "news" outlet meeting directly with a government handler who decides what we should and shouldn't see- instead of the big outlets self-censoring themselves as has been the case post 9/11.

This is the same thing that happened in East Germany, and Russia.. That's the direction we're heading toward, Americans should be very pissed off, but it seems most have just given up.

[Ivytalk]

It's just the precedent- Now it's completely okay for say C-Span's Washington Journal to just have pro-government staged callers call in and talk about how great everyone in the Government is doing for example.

Now it's completely legal for NBC to show a nightly news that is 100% pro-government propaganda (not that they weren't already very pro-government and full of ****) but now it's legal.

Now it's legal to have every single "news" outlet meeting directly with a government handler who decides what we should and shouldn't see- instead of the big outlets self-censoring themselves as has been the case post 9/11.

This is the same thing that happened in East Germany, and Russia.. That's the direction we're heading toward, Americans should be very pissed off, but it seems most have just given up.

Methinks you're vastly overstating the importance of this. Very few people watch the news anymore, let alone rely upon a particular MSM source. Americans are so cynical about politics and the media that they're inclined to disbelieve 90% of what they hear anyway. Move along.

[CitadelGrad]

Who will be Obama's Leni Riefenstahl?

Oh wait, he already has hundreds of Riefenstahls in Hollywood.