EOTO 2: Smith-Mundt Act

The US Information and Education Exchange Act better known as the “Smith-Mundt act" was a bill proposed by Karl E. Mundt during the year of 1945 during the 79th congress. It was passed during the year of 1948 by the 80th congress, under President Harry S. Truman; in January of that year, he signed it into law. The point of the act was to keep the government and its agencies from spreading propaganda to U.S citizens. This act allowed for the government to broadcast propaganda overseas whether it be TV broadcasts, books, pamphlets, movies, radio shows, and more.

There are many good implications to this as this prohibits government agencies like the FBI or CIA from pushing misinformation to the masses of the United States and allows for us to make decisions based on what we see and hear and not what the government puts out there to sway us.

The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 amended the US Information and Education exchange Act. Passed by the 112th congress, the mending of this act allowed for the U.S government to push propaganda to the citizens of the United States now. The amendment to this act should have been the inability to push propaganda onto foreign nations so that both Americans and global citizens all over are protected from false information and views but instead they chose to harm U.S citizens.

This is terrible for many reasons as no government should be allowed to fool its own citizens as the whole point of it is to mislead and sway people to believe an agenda that they want. Globally we as a society have a herd mentality, it's uncomfortable to ask questions and be seen as the odd one out for questioning why we should believe something just because it's told to us by the government. When it comes to age demographics the elderly and children aged 7-16 are the most impressionable when it comes to falling for propaganda. Children are targeted a lot because it's easier to instill certain values and beliefs into a child versus a fully grown adult who isn’t so inclined to believe everything they hear. So, when that child grows up, they are already hold the beliefs that the government pushed onto them through propaganda.

When it comes to my generation a lot of us don’t want to be seen as bad people so if the government tells you that something or someone is bad then we’re quick to believe it. What makes this even worse is our culture of outcasting, we will quickly blast someone for so much as questioning someone and will publicly shame them online. And when revealed that we were wrong everyone pretends that they didn’t believe it in the first place and will try to spin it as you were wrong but not them. It’s a toxic mindset to have so propaganda is very easy to fall for during my generation as band wagoning is very common. It’s even worse If a celebrity supports something then you have to support it too or else you're ignorant. Celebrities are commonly used by politicians and governments agencies to push out propaganda to teens and adults in their early to mid-twenties because they know we’ll fall for it.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/5736

https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/oversight/legislation/smith-mundt/

https://www.usagm.gov/who-we-are/oversight/legislation/smith-mundt-faqs/