While I do support changes in the Smith-Mundt Act, there are very legitimate concerns that officials of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) will use the new legislation to abandon foreign audiences  to focus on the domestic one.  This is a real threat considering their track record of seeking easy mass audiences by downplaying hard news, eliminating broadcasting services to countries like Russia and China, and focusing on providing entertainment and educational programming.  The new legislation will make it easier for them to turn away from foreign audiences.  I’m also concerned that the same officials will try to remove more programs paid for by U.S. taxpayers from public domain or try to charge domestic consumers for their use. Currently, Voice of America programs are in public domain but Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are not.  Finally, BBG officials are also trying to weaken public and Congressional scrutiny by, for example, attempting to eliminate the requirement that the new proposed CEO position at the BBG be subject to Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. Who will keep an eye on the BBG if they are allowed to broadcasts and publish in the US? They should at least be prevented from actively marketing their programs domestically, because that’s where taxpayers’ money will go, rather than serving international audiences.  I do, however, support the idea that Americans should have full access to BBG programs if they want them. In fact, the current law does not prevent individual American citizens and US broadcasters from using Voice of America programs if they can find them. (They are on the Internet.)  It does prevent the BBG from making them available to those who request them. That part of the current law should be changed.  But allowing the BBG to market their programs in the US is a bad idea because you can’t trust government bureaucrats to restrain themselves on their own. They will take advantage of this law, if it passes, to divert public money from critical news and information projects in countries lacking free and balanced media to use  for their own domestic PR projects and on themselves. If not modified, this bill will lead to waste of taxpayers’ money at home and to weakening US public diplomacy and national security interests abroad. Ted Lipien
Former Voice of America Acting Associate Director
Co-founder and Director of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting
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