What We Tell the World

TWO WEEKS ago, a Congressional investigating body concluded that the Reagan Administration had breached restrictions on the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes. Since 1985, the body found, the State Department has been illegally conducting a "covert propaganda" operation to "favorably influence" public support for the Nicaraguan contras. While this may appear to be one of the more insignificant revelations to emerge in connection with the Iran-contra scandal, it in fact illustrates a dangerous trend toward the politicization of previously non-political entities.

In this case, the State Department was responsible for ghost-writing editorials and misleading journalists in an overall effort to portray the contras as the "genuine voice of the people of Nicaragua." By sullying itself in this operation, the State Department did more than circumvent the law; it undermined its credibility.

The danger is that there will be a perceived lack of commitment to other agreements and by-laws we have promised to uphold. As the spectre of doubt grows, guarantees in trade and arms agreements hold less validity, making prospects for future dealings even less predictable.

AMERICA'S traditional role as leader of the free world has been legitimated by the consistency in its words and deeds. By creating a gap between the substance of actions and the content of rhetoric, that basis for American power has been removed. Efforts to preserve freedom and individual rights will be seen as self-serving attempts to justify hegemonic advances on other nations.

The possibility of this danger becoming reality is increasing proportionally to other Administration attempts to solicit support for its policies. Veering from their traditional roles, government information organizations have become forums for political beliefs.

Voice of America, a news service aimed at Eastern European and Soviet audiences, earned respect with decades of solid reporting. Under the Reagan Administration, however, Voice has become a mouthpiece for White House ideology.

Voice programming, comprised mainly of news, sporting events, and editorials, has remained basically intact. The content though, has become increasingly conservative. Voice, in moving dangerously close to outright propaganda, has drawn criticism from American observers and communist listeners alike.

As a representative of democracy, Voice should stand not on one side of an issue but above it, there by allowing listenerers to make up their own minds. By choosing sides, Voice becomes a rhetorical device. Reduced to this level, it is really no different from Pravda.

Radio Marti, a U.S.-sponsored radio station that has broadcast to Cuba since 1983, is even more prejudiced than Voice. As it harps on Cuba's problems--while glorifying life in the states--Marti cedes any chance of winning democracy the respect it deserves.

The recent epidemics of AIDS in the United States has prompted Cuban officials to attack the decadent West, while denying the demonstrated fact of the syndrome's presence in their own country. These lies have been refuted by Marti broadcasts that present evidence of AIDS in Cuba. But then Marti goes further, and much to far, in saying that military men brought AIDS to Cuba from Angola--and that Cubans who don't support the United States position on the conflict put their health at risk.

VOICE of America, Radio Marti, and the State Department are just a few of what the Administration regards as tools for pushing a particular ideological line in other nations. For democracy in this or any other country to survive, however, there must be an uninhibited flow of ideas to provide a basis for people to make decisions. Nonetheless, it is fast becoming true that the United States reports events the way they should be heard, pro-Administration, or not at all. And Americans deceive themselves in believing any foundation for democracy is thereby provided.