One Propaganda Window Closes (After Several Doors Open)

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News searches on USA.gov, a website run by the federal General Services Administration, no longer return stories from Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe, or other government-funded media. Prompted by questions from "an official at the State Department's electronic information division," federal lawyers "determined that the material should not be on a domestic news site," under a 1948 law barring "domestic dissemination of official American information aimed at foreign audiences." A VOA spokesperson noted that U.S. residents can still easily access VOA websites. "The nature of the Web is that it doesn't respect boundaries," he said. Meanwhile, U.S.-funded programs are being broadcast in South Florida, the Pentagon has OK'd its own "news" websites, and a 2003 information operations document claimed that propagandizing U.S. audiences is permissible -- as long as the government doesn't intend to do so.