Voice of America?

Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence political opinions. It’s been an essential part of most countries’ efforts to communicate with their constituents, to rile them up or calm them down. To spread a message that generally supports incumbents and their goals. Harsh regimes have issued harsh propaganda. Nazis blamed Jews for Germany’s ills, justifying their mass extermination of people of that faith. The U.S. used propaganda to sell war bonds and convince the public to support various war efforts.

For years, the United States has engaged in its own form of propaganda toward foreign nations, particularly those who censor information that they do not want their public to know. The Voice of America, often launched into those nations by short wave or the Internet, is our media vehicle of choice. In some nations, merely listening to the VOA is a criminal offense with serious consequences.

“VOA was established in 1942, and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103-415) was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. The charter contains its mission ‘to broadcast accurate, balanced, and comprehensive news and information to an international audience,’ and it defines the legally mandated standards in the VOA journalistic code.

“VOA is headquartered in Washington, DC and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent agency of the U.S. government. Funds are appropriated annually by Congress under the budget for embassies and consulates. In 2016, VOA broadcast an estimated 1,800 hours of radio and TV programming each week to approximately 236.6 million people worldwide with about 1,050 employees and a taxpayer-funded annual budget of US$218.5 million.” Wikipedia

On November 26^th, Trump’s tweet-storm contained these two rather disturbing messages: “While CNN doesn’t do great in the United States based on ratings, outside of the U.S. they have very little competition. Throughout the world, CNN has a powerful voice portraying the United States in an unfair and false way.”       And

 “Something has to be done, including the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are, GREAT!” 

Hmmmm. Trump seems to want “to broadcast accurate, balanced, and comprehensive news and information to an international audience,” except he defines that phrase as telling the world what he wants the world to see and hear about… er… Donald Trump. “Fair and balanced”? Adhering to a statutorily-imposed “journalistic code”?

Ever wonder why CNN is able to telecast all over the world when Fox News cannot? The laws of supply and demand have pretty much relegated Fox News to the United States with a few overseas hotel outlets where American tourists might visit. Even if the government were to pay to establish Trump-casting as a legitimate media outlet, think the world would actually tune in? With the exception of a couple of pro-Trump pockets – like Israel and Eastern Europe – I suspect that Trump’s truth-spreading medium would vie with Comedy Central for credibility.

Could Trump simply co-opt the Voice of America? Does he know it even exists? He’s not proposing a domestic media outlet, but I suspect that Fox News is more than sufficient as his domestic mouthpiece. We’ve always engaged in propaganda of one form or another. The Voice of America is fairly benign as far as they effort goes, but we all know – wink, wink – that is not what media-savvy Donald wants. He definitely could not live with a legally-mandated journalistic code.

What is disturbing is that this new media proposal, which is unlikely to generate much interest anywhere but within the confines of the White House, is not about “news” about the United States at all; it’s about the cult of personality we call Donald Trump. After all, Trump pretty much takes credit for anything that the United States does these days (he blames others for the bad stuff or simply denies it exists).

In his eyes, he can do no wrong, should be given an “A+” (is there anything higher?) on his presidency and should be named Time Magazine’s “man of the year.” He’s told the American people that only he can fix what’s wrong with America. For the most part, among major media outlets, only Fox News tows that party line.

As such, his desired form of propaganda falls within the purview of autocratic personality cult worship, free from criticism, that marked dictators like Adolph Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Juan Perón and Fidel Castro in the past and what we see today from rulers like Vladimir Putin (his RT network telecasts all over the world today), Nicholás Maduro and Kim Jong-Un today. Not exactly the BBC, CBC or even the Voice of America. It pretty much seems to be as un-American as one could possibly get. But then, Trump was elected President.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and the thought that government by a single person is remotely part of the American democratic system – that this is the main message all should hear – should set alarm bells off in each and every American.