Smith-Mundt Act: Hello? Transparency?

It's all too often that our own Congress will pass an act or a law that seems to be protecting us as citizens and acting in our best interest, when in reality, it is actually hurting us. A massive example of this, which may not be the most well-known or prominent, is the example of the Smith-Mundt Act, also known as the U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948.

This act was intentionally set out in the mid-1900's to promote a better understanding of the American people and United States to those outside of the nation while strengthening foreign relations, and thus it was an act regarding legislative authorization for propaganda activities conducted by the US. Sounds great on the surface, right?

Wrong. In 2012, the real issues with this act came to light, and the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 was amended and passed because of the deep-set problems with the 1948 version of the act. While it seems like the act was passed with good reason, it actually was detrimental to the American people due to the lack of transparency from their own government. This "anti-propaganda" act, according to ForeignPolicy.com, prevented the United States government from sending out ANY and ALL programming to the American audience.

Yes - you read that correctly: NO PROGRAMMING could legally be sent out to the American public from the government before 2012. Whaaaat?

While other natiosn were receiving programming related to human trafficking across Asia and human rights abuses in Iran, the U.S. public was hearing nothing from our own government on such issues. All "propaganda" was prohibited by the original Smith-Mundt Act because way back when, a Senator thought that this type of propaganda should be left out of the American public's reach to "distinguish from the Soviet Union where domestic propaganda is a principal government activity."

In a sense, I get it. Americans pay not want their tax money going to propaganda that goes out to the public from the government. But, also, TRANSPARENCY!!!!

Luckily, the modernization act in 2012 did a lot of good for America, because now there are tons of government-funded radio and TV programs around the nation.

Yay, Congress!

That's all for now. Lynds