U.S anti-propaganda law dropped, Government made news here we come?

[AVGWarhawk]

The question is, why was it banned to begin with? The era? I do not see a mad amount of news broadcast forthcoming.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

The question is, why was it banned to begin with? The era? I do not see a mad amount of news broadcast forthcoming.

From the chicago tribune article:

The restriction of these broadcasts was due to the Smith-Mundt Act, a long-standing piece of legislation that has been amended numerous times over the years, perhaps most consequentially by Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright, D. In the 70s, Fulbright was no friend of VOA and Radio Free Europe, and moved to restrict them from domestic distribution, saying they "should be given the opportunity to take their rightful place in the graveyard of Cold War relics." Fulbright's amendment to Smith-Mundt was bolstered in 1985 by Nebraska Senator Edward Zorinsky, D, who argued that such "propaganda" should be kept out of America as to distinguish the U.S. "from the Soviet Union where domestic propaganda is a principal government activity."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith%E2%80%93Mundt_Act

I didn't get far into the wiki page, and stopped reading here:

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 amended the Smith–Mundt Act and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987, allowing for materials produced by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to be released within U.S. borders and striking down a long-time ban on the dissemination of such material in the United States

NDAA... again? Joy. I'll read the rest for myself later when I find i have more patience to do so.

[Dowly]