The chairman and top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are trying again to overhaul U.S. international broadcasting amid new challenges from sophisticated propaganda operations by rivals such as Russia and the Islamic State.
The goal is to provide more resources to spread U.S. government messages worldwide, along with tighter accountability and oversight of that process.
The panel on Thursday unanimously approved legislation that would replace the existing Broadcasting Board of Governors with a leaner U.S. International Communications Agency whose CEO would have responsibility for all U.S. government broadcasting operations, including the Voice of America. The bill also would consolidate Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Network into a single government-supported entity.
These changes have been recommended by the State Department and outside experts who have studied the issue, yet Congress has not approved them. The House passed similar legislation last year, but it died in the Senate over concerns it would turn respected media outlets such as VOA into propaganda channels.
But with the global battle for information becoming more intense, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce said they have to try again.
“Right now, groups like [the Islamic State], [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and Iran are ‘weaponizing’ information to undermine regional stability and stoke violence. We’re on the defensive and failing to cut through the misinformation with facts,” the California Republican said.
“We don’t have the luxury of minor tweaks; this legislation responds to the need for complete overhaul.”
Royce has the backing of the committee’s top Democrat, Eliot Engel of New York, who’s also a co-sponsor of the legislation.
“Authoritarian governments and extremist groups are flooding airwaves and covering websites with propaganda and misinformation. Modern technologies have provided new avenues for disseminating lies and distortions to massive audiences,” Engel said.
“Unfortunately, America’s ability to respond effectively hasn’t kept pace,” he added.
Indeed, efforts to share U.S. perspectives have lagged in the face of aggressive efforts by other governments and non-state actors to both push their own points of view and restrict the reach of professional news media, sometimes through violent means such as the beheading or arrest of journalists.
Russia’s use of information as a weapon has helped the Kremlin eat away at Ukraine’s territory and undermine the NATO alliance in Eastern Europe. The Islamic State’s mastery of social media allows the extremist group to reach into U.S. society to the point where “lone wolf” attackers can be inspired to commit terrorism without an apparent connection to, or support from, any organization.
“America’s voice is being heard but not being listened to. Even though American culture is pervasive and dominant throughout the world, it does not translate into support for American policies. Other cultures are becoming equally influential,” said a report on public diplomacy released in March by the Aspen Institute.
“The new information space means that America’s traditional democratic narrative is being lost in an echo chamber of other voices.”
