Kerry Bill Would Prohibit DoD Propaganda

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is calling on Congress to ban the Department of Defense (DoD) from using tax money to fund “propaganda.”

Kerry, along with fellow Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Bob Menendez (N.Y.), and Frank Lautenberg (N.Y.), is planning to introduce a companion bill to House legislation instituting such a ban, Kerry’s office said today. The House version, introduced by Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), was included in the 2009 Defense authorization bill.

The bill defines propaganda as “any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of the people of the United States in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.”

Prompted by the influential New York Times story, in April Kerry called for a Government Accountability Office investigation into the Pentagon’s placement of military analysts on U.S. news networks leading up to the Iraq war.