An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.
The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.
The tweak 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 bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mark Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State.
The kicker:
The bill’s supporters say the informational material used overseas to influence foreign audiences is too good to not use at home, and that new techniques are needed to help fight Al-Qaeda, a borderless enemy whose own propaganda reaches Americans online.
There you have it!
Clearly the end is near. Between CISPA allowing private companies to spy on us and share the information with a variety of government agencies with no oversight and now allowing Orwellian state propaganda…
Where will this end?
I’ts in the name of freedom after all. freedom from opinion… or at least freedom of any opinion that’s not the same as mine.
Oh great. Maybe we will get political Chick tracts soon.
Given the political parties, congress, the Prez, and the media have been propagandizing the public from day one, how will we know the difference?
Same as it ever was.
All the more reason why we need smaller government.
When one series of words is the answer for every problem/issue you encounter, you are not providing analysis, you are providing dogma.
Propagandizing the American Public is wrong regardless of the size of government.
Prove me wrong.
Some call it dogma, others call it being a master of the obvious.
The problem is obviously big government wanting more control of the masses.
Very true. The question is whether the impact is as profound with smaller or bigger government. How do you mitigate the risk of propagandizing the masses when the government is large versus small with limited powers?
Nothing to prove. We agree that propagandizing is bad regardless of size of government.
That said, we seem to differ on the impact of propagandizing from a larger government versus from a smaller government. You seem to believe that the impact is essentially the same regardless of size (or so it seems based on your flowery all propaganda is bad regardless of size).
I believe the best way to mitigate the problem is shrink the size of government down. Otherwise, the bigger the government, the bigger the problem.
When you can’t believe the lies being told you by your own government who can you trust? Making it official is so stupid I think they need a new name for it. It is a foolish act by people who lack even a hint of wisdom.
There are numerous laws against using cointelpro against the American public, which what this is really about. This goes far beyond simple lies and half-truths and “uh, I don’t know.” This is unleashing a propaganda war against the American public as if they were an enemy.
An informed and involved American public IS the enemy.
That and lackeys like dullass
Look at the USA Today articles from the Buzzfeed post. USA Today’s reporters have already been subject to some sort of retaliation, probably from Pentagon contractors – which is illegal, by the way – for writing about “info ops”: http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-02-29/afghanistan-iraq-military-information-operations-usa-today-investigation/53295472/1
and http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-04-19/vanden-brook-locker-propaganda/54419654/1
Okay guess the link is blacklisted…
Thornberry (R-TX): Amendment No. 114—Amends the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (known as the Smith-Mundt Act) and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1986 and 1987 to clarify the authorities of the Department of State and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to prepare, disseminate and use public diplomacy information abroad and to strike the current ban on domestic dissemination of such material. The amendment would clarify that the Smith-Mundt Act’s provisions related to public diplomacy information do not apply to other federal departments or agencies (including the DoD).
They have to lie to us, you know, to save the children. And puppies.
Ever listen to the VOA (Voice of America) news stream?
http://voanews.com/wm/live/newsnow.asx
More VOA:
http://voanews.com/section/radio/2212.html
A lot of programming about Africa. I wonder how many Afrians are able to listen?
No doubt, given Obama’s choice of Kagen who defended the idea of Government skewing speech (propaganda), these statists know Obama will sign it, while his successor may not.
Once again we see voting Republican isn’t enough, after a few years they all act like statist demorepublicans, and its damm the people and the country, keep that military industrial complex kickback flowing…
Tea Party libertarians offer the only real alternative, Ron Paul.
Repukes, Dumbocraps, red pill, blue pill, (there’s no such recognized party as the Tea Party you poor, deluded sap,) it makes no difference anyway.
My rant against any and all political parties was getting boring to type so I gave it its own wiki page.
If you’re voting, you’re making a choice between heart attack and cancer, viz: you’re picking one millionaire candidate who’s approved and backed by some corporations against another millionaire who’s approved and backed by some corporations, (in some cases, they’re both backed by the same corporations. [Those corporations are not going to lose their special interests just because anybody thought one candidate was better than the other.])
The key phrase there was millionaire candidate approved and backed by corporate masters.
These guys are connected and have access to enough cash to waste it on running for office (in Britain its called standing for office. The Brits are to lazy to pretend to be running for anything. [But don't get between them and a paycheck... {Or between Chris Christie and a buffet table.}])
These guys are in no way, shape or form like me and thee.
They don’t like you or want to know you exist unless you have funds, because if you don’t you’re just causing them trouble or making work for them.
<bRod Blagojevich was too stupid and venial not to fuck up, but he was typical of the level of slime that you get to chose from column A or from column B.
When the Citizen’s United ruling came down I was worried about corporations owning candidates for one party or another. I have not seen much evidence of this. Large multinational corporations are backing both sides with the so that they will will have influence on whomever wins. This makes their shareholders happy.
The biggest surprise result is the influence of private individual billionaires on the campaigns. With no need to limit or hide their donations, one or two people can people can fund an entire campaign. These backers have no one to answer to and will support whatever extreme agenda that they believe in.
Candidates that would normally have been vetted out because of their unpopularity with their party or the public are still present because their billionaire backers want them their. (Hey there Newt! What happened to that casino money?)
Don’t worry about sneaky corporations. Worry about the loud, the bold, the independent wealthy. It is their policies that are being pushed.
Posted two days ago, it all starts here: http://tinyurl.com/bvpap6a
They needed to protect themselves after having released all those talking points about Obamacare reducing the deficit.
Any time Obama says Let me be clear, the next statement will be a lie.
Figures the Congress bill sponsor, Mark Thornberry is a Teapublican.
However, the notion of lying to the sheeple is not new. What’s new is just admission to it.
You get lied each and everyday and you love it, sheep
Gummint the world over are still trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
Its one thing (ok, only a very few things,) when when you have a mass media 1:N broadcasting the messages, one at a time, that the oligarchs want to spread over any objective reality, its quite another when you have networks of N:M message streams in control of their own economic fates.
Back in the day, you used to have des plans quinquenal broadcast at the masses, followed by four years of glowing progress reports, followed by frantic arrests to find some boucs émissaire, show trials of those marginal scapegoats and their subsequent executions, followed immediately by yet another five-year-plan.
Eventually, there was another war, a massive famine, an economic collapse or some or other environmental disaster to serve as a reset point and then your country went the way of all flesh and maybe some other country rose to dominance elsewhere for a while…
That’s the way its gone up until now.
The difficulties came in the third quarter of the twentieth century with the globalization of the economy, the rise of nearly instant global communication, and the internet.
There are now several corporations with continent and globe spanning economic enterprises to manage who are using the internet and will not allow it to be screwed with.
Political power is fundamentally local, (it is limited not by geography but by linguistic grouping,) economic power is not so constrained. (Corporations agree on a corporate language, usually some form of English, regardless of what language maybe spoken locally, and “Bob’s your uncle, eh?)
Wars are fundamentally very bad for local economies. Companies that profit from the arms trade are limited in their wish to see the weapons actually used.
That’s corporatism for ya.
Personally, I welcome our new Informational Advertorial Overlords.
The government can do everything. Tey have the power and the ability to lie.
I’d just like to point out that since the government actually represents big business, reducing the size of the government only saves money. A worthy endeavor for sure but hardly the answer to cure all our problems. Refocusing the government on civil rights is my main concern and one you don’t here much about on either side of the political fence. They all pretend we don’t have an issue there.
Well, we stole all the nazi weapons – jets, subs, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and yes, atomic weapons; we now perfect their PROPAGANDA WEAPONS AS WELL !!! Seig Heil !!!
You’re saying Obama is a Nazi. What a development!
Why should Rupert Murdoch have all the fun?
This type of law is among the nails which shut the door on this republic.
I did not expect the American Caesar switch-over to happen during my adulthood. We fucked it up for our kids.
Goddammit
Michelle Malkin and the rest of 911 good squad don’t need to feel guilty anymore. Hell the government even lies in court. So if the government lies in court that is fine. Guys get your press passes ready to make up your own stories to fight against this propaganda machine.