Ian Schwartz, realclearpolitics.com [original article contains video]
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CNN's Brian Stelter said Sunday the fear of "Trump TV" is not over as the president-elect will have "state-owned media" at his disposal.
"If you thought the possibility of Trump TV was over now that President-elect Trump is on the way to the White House, think again. One of the little known entities President Trump will have at his disposal about a month from now is state-owned media operations," Stelter warned.
After expressing his concern of President-elect Trump using government news outlets such as 'Voice of America' as a propaganda arm for the administration Stelter brought in Richard Stengel, a former TIME magazine editor who left journalism to join the Obama administration.
"There are these suggestions that somehow Voice of America could become more of an explicit propaganda arm," Stelter dreaded.
"Tara Palmeri in Politico bringing up this idea of Trump TV, that President Trump could use the Voice of America and these other outlets in order to even pump propaganda into the United States," [JB - see] a worried Stelter said.
Stengel attempted to assuage Stelter of his fear, explaining that the independent Board of Governors is a "firewall" between the government-owned media and the White House. However, the CNNer still was afraid Trump could turn Voice of America into "an explicit propaganda arm."
Stengel argued that there is not so much as a "fake news" problem as there is a "media literacy problem."
Transcript, via CNN:
BRIAN STELTER: Welcome back to RELIABLE SOURCES. I'm Brian Stelter.
If you thought the possibility of Trump TV was over now that President-elect Trump is on the way to the White House, think again. One of the little known entities President Trump will have at his disposal about a month from now is state-owned media operations. A major source of information to get out U.S. news across the world, including Voice for America and Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East broadcast networks.
In recent days, in "Washington Post" and elsewhere, there is big concern that a tool like this could be used as propaganda in the hands of someone like Trump, due in part to recent legislation that changes the Broadcasting Board of Governors. This is complicated, so we want talk to the best person who understands it, and that is Richard Stengel, a former editor of "TIME" magazine, most recently former undersecretary of public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department.
Richard, great to see you.
RICHARD STENGEL, FORMER UNDERSCRETARY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Ryan, great to be here.
STELTER: So, you've been out of state for a couple of weeks, and you were on the board of what's called the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
STENGEL: Yes.
STELTER: Tell our viewers what is that board do.
STENGEL: Brian, being able to talk about the BBG is an unprecedented thing. So, I'm so glad to have --
STELTER: How much money a year? Is it like --
STENGEL: It has $750 million budget. It's a Cold War --
STELTER: OK. So, taxpayers' money --
STENGEL: Taxpayers --
STELTER: -- that's being paid for what?
STENGEL: It's an independent broadcasting entity. It started during the Cold War when there was a scarcity of information, when we had to combat Russian disinformation. Sound familiar? Of course, it does sound familiar.
And now it is tied to the State Department, but it can't be manipulated by the White House or the State Department. It is an independent agency. It's Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia.
And this legislation that you mentioned is actually supported by the State Department and supported by the White House, because it creates an empowered CEO who is Senate-confirmed. In fact, there is fantastic CEO there right now John Lansing, who we put in. And this is one of the real weapons in the arsenal of the administration, and they can use it, use it to combat disinformation.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: You're saying it's independent, but also that it's a weapon in the arsenal?
STENGEL: Well, it is part of the American arsenal.
It is not CNN. It is also not a propaganda engine. In fact, one of the great challenges for it is, in this era of disinformation, what do you put out there? You don't put out propaganda. We don't do that as Americans. And we don't just do investigative journalism, although it does it.
There is some fact-based system of information that will refute those lies that are out. That should be the engine of BBG.
STELTER: So, reading "The Washington Post," reading Politico, there are these suggestions that somehow Voice of America could become more of an explicit propaganda arm.
Tara Palmeri in Politico bringing up this idea of Trump TV, that President Trump could use the Voice of America and these other outlets in order to even pump propaganda into the United States.
STENGEL: Well, first of all, there is a firewall between the government and BBG.
STELTER: But isn't that board being eliminated?
STENGEL: No, the board is becoming a board of advisers. We're really getting into the weeds now.
Part of the problems at BBG was that the board actually ran it. This legislation creates a CEO. It creates a board of advisers, and basically it now will run like a more modern media operation.
STELTER: These stories, for example, in "The Washington Post" were suggesting this could be very dangerous. You are saying, no, the opposite?
STENGEL: Anything can be very dangerous.
I think, again, it is still protected, It still has the firewall. The legislation is by Chairman Royce, who really understands the power of this. So, it is not going to turn into an engine of the new president.
STELTER: What do you look at zooming out here? We look at what Russia has. Russia Today is their cable channel all around the world, Sputnik News, one of their Web sites.
STENGEL: Yes.
STELTER: These are powerful news outlets that seem to share the
Russian point of view. Many call them propaganda.
Is the U.S. competing effectively in this kind of global information landscape?
STENGEL: This is this global disinformation war that is out there.
STELTER: Disinformation war?
STENGEL: Disinformation war.
And it is put out by states sponsors. Russia is the single biggest and most maligned actor in terms of putting out disinformation all along and overt means, R.T., Sputnik.
You had president-elect Trump quoting Sputnik and R.T. stories during the campaign. We started to see this after the illegal annexation of Crimea, the invasion of Ukraine, because what the Russians did following the fall of Berlin Wall is they set up television stations in the Russian periphery. They felt threatened.
They felt threatened by NATO. They felt threatened by our soft power, which is the thing that helped the Berlin Wall fall down. In fact, one of the problems of the U.S. is that we basically kind of washed our hands of it after the Berlin Wall fell down. And the Russians started beefing up and creating these television stations throughout the periphery that did news, information, sports and entertainment.
And it had this pernicious, dark view of the West and their newscasts, and it pollutes that whole information system in Central Europe.
STELTER: Sounds like you are advocating for increased spending by the U.S. government to combat this.
STENGEL: And there is increased spending for next year for BBG. Again, it is not propaganda. It is not just journalism. It is actually fact-based information that people can see.
People do want to hear from the U.S. government.
STELTER: The "Washington Post" opinion piece on this suggested that perhaps the Obama administration and the State Department you were a part of supported these changes, creating a more powerful CEO, because you were expecting Hillary Clinton to win, not Donald Trump, that maybe this has fallen into different hands.
(CROSSTALK)
STENGEL: ... expecting Mrs. Clinton to win.
I think the point is every new president has these kinds of things at his or her prerogative. And, in fact, it is separate from the White House. It does have this firewall. But I think, again, it has a great CEO in John Lansing. They will change and adapt. They're becoming more digital. And they will create this new kind of environment, which is very positive.
STELTER: Interesting for us to even have increased awareness of the fact that the United States does provide news reporting all around the world through Voice of America.
STENGEL: We do.
It reaches hundreds of millions of people. It's in dozens and dozens of languages. And, as you mentioned, Brian, the Russians basically saw the effectiveness of this and put out their own services. But I would argue they're creating disinformation.
You are talking about fake news. They're the largest disseminator and purveyor of fake news in the world. So many of these stories that pollute the American information environment comes from these Russian sources or Russian-supported Web sites.
And part of the problem is, I would say we don't have just a fake news problem. What we have is a media literacy problem. We don't -- Americans don't understand the difference between actually fact-based news and these strange stories that are filled with propaganda.
STELTER: I'm with you on media literacy.
Richard, it's great to see you. Pleasure to talk with you.
STENGEL: Great to see you, Brian. Thank you.
STELTER: Thank you very much.
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