President Donald Trump recently shared a video from a supporter on his Truth Social platform. The woman in the clip, “who voted for (Trump) three times,” implored the president to reinstate a law.
“I am hoping and praying that you will revisit what Barack Obama and Joe Biden got rid of back in 2013, which is the Smith-Mundt Act, which held news corporations accountable for lying to the American people, and spreading propaganda instead of truth,” the woman said.
She suggested the legislation would be called the “Charlie Kirk Act.”
But this claim, along with much of the video’s content, is false, according to PolitiFact.
The U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, or the Smith-Mundt Act, was enacted to regulate broadcasting to foreign audiences, which led to the creation of Voice of America, a station funded by the U.S. government.
The act doesn’t apply to private news organizations and does not penalize the news corporations for their content.
In 2012, the law was amended, not repealed, by a bipartisan group, to update a “Cold-War Era law that hampers diplomatic, military efforts,” according to a May 15, 2012, news release from lawmakers. The focus of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act was to repeal a ban on what the government-run stations could distribute to foreign audiences and in the United States.
“While the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 was developed to counter communism during the Cold War, it is outdated for the conflicts of today,” Democratic Rep....
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