Almost 30 years after communist regimes disappeared in Eastern Europe, the United States have decided to increase propaganda to the area … to promote democracy. Earlier this week, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty announced it will be resuming broadcasts to my country Romania and our Bulgarian neighbors, services discontinued 15 years ago. These new broadcasts will be added to the current RFE programs in 25 languages, directed mainly to former USSR countries. The institution’s current budget is $117 million and will probably go up next year with the addition of the new services.
Why would the US government spend that kind of money to broadcast news in this part of the world? Propaganda. Spinning the official American narrative, which some in Washington seem to consider infallible, just like the Pope’s words.
During the Cold War, RFE/RL were a godsend to countries like mine and back then we did not care about no propaganda. We did not have other means of information about the Western world. But, that was 30 years ago. My country for instance has an abundance of radio and TV stations, not to mention the Internet. We have more news delivered to us each day than we could possibly read or watch.
Why on earth would we need more?
According to the official press release, the extended coverage:
‘will help the growth of a free press, promote democratic values and institutions, and inform discussion in both countries of their place in NATO, the EU and other Western organizations’.
Coming from Washington, I’ll assume that ‘free press’ means the American kind of press like CNN and the ‘The New York Times’. No worries, we have lots of those. Trump-bashing? That’s on a daily basis and Trump isn’t even our president!
What I find totally inappropriate is the notion that we need someone to talk to us about our place in NATO and other organizations. Really? I wonder how many Americans would accept being lectured on their place in NATO?!
(Being a decent Steemian I have censored all the four-letter words trembling on my finger-tips right now.)
Anyway, the real aim of the initiative is - to use a term dominating the news these days - meddling in local politics and the presidential elections next year! It’s not something new - as a small struggling country, both the US and the EU consider it their right to tell us who to vote for.
In case you’re wondering why Russia has branded RFE/RL (among many others) as ‘foreign agents’, that’s why. At least, Putin has the guts to do something about this.
Since president Trump’s visit to Europe there has been a lot of talk on the blockchain about the US wasting a lot of money on Europe, many Americans being of the opinion that should stop. That is exactly why I wanted to share this piece of information. Maybe $117 million is not much for the US budget, but still I’m sure it could be put to better use than forcing American propaganda upon me and my people.
Oh, and if you think this is the only propaganda channel used by the US in this part of the world, rest assured there are others. Years ago, there was a big scandal following the discovery of local journalists being paid directly by the Pentagon. Not to mention the many Soros-funded NGOs.
How’s that for meddling in another country’s politics?
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