Talk:United States Information Agency

message: Regardless of whatever historical connotations it once had or how the word came about, public diplomacy is NOT the same as propaganda or public relations. The military is practicing propaganda with satellite channels and truth bomb flyers.  Planting a military experts on CNN is propaganda.  Public diplomacy is opening up English language libraries in the embassy or putting up free concerts.  French efforts at promoting its language is a kind of public diplomacy.  Japan's efforts at sending teachers overseas and bringing American/Western students to Japan to teach is another.  So unless you think every free concert/culture event on Dupont Circle constitutes propaganda intended to brainwash unsuspecting and hungry interns, you need to think again on presenting "public diplomacy" as the same as propaganda, however technically correct, is misleading.
Under subheading "Public diplomacy and propaganda":
"In the years following these earlier views, some U.S. Government officials and others contended that U.S. public diplomacy programs are not propaganda. Others still contend, however, that since propaganda can be based on fact, public diplomacy can be equated with propaganda i.e. ideas, information, or other material disseminated to win people over to a given doctrine. If based on falsehoods and untruths, while still propaganda, it is best described as "disinformation." 
However technical one may get about the term propaganda; it is undeniable that the word itself has a hugely negative connotation in the mind of an average person.  The word itself implies dishonesty, of which is not relevant in defining the USIA.  It is anyone's prerogative to question the USIA's intent, effectiveness, or morality, but under a subheading like "Role of USIA", "Ethics of (American) Public Diplomacy,", and etc.  It is dishonest to sneak in judgment of a reasonable and ethically sound aspect of any diplomat's effort, American or foreign, in advancing his or her nation's interest. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.144.190.115 (talk • contribs) 
:It is POV to claim outright that the agency produced propaganda, I will admit. But it is also POV to claim that it did not. Coverage of the debate is what is needed. I'm also not convinced that we should shy away from the term propaganda simply because people mis-understand it: propaganda can provide useful, factual advice, and it is better to explain that. Providing examples will allow readers to make up their own minds.
:To start throwing examples in, I came on this article through Ed Murrow's broadcast "The Challenge of Ideas"; note its description of the US Navy's purpose and the use of John Wayne to make an appeal to notoriety in particular. You'll also find the USIA name-checked at Propaganda#Cold_War_propaganda --Tom Edwards (talk) 15:09, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Here is another example of propaganda with a factually-accurate message. The caricature is obviously grotesque and a racial slur, but there is no dishonesty or trickery in the idea that working less benefits the enemy. --Tom Edwards (talk) 15:25, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  2008 discussion 

message: I think that the menion of Bill Clinton as a Fulbright recipient is incorrect. Clinton received a Fulbright Prize from the Fulbright alumni association in 2005, but this is not the same as receiving a Fulbright scholarship from USIA. I'm going to delte this line--which, besides, strikes me as oddly defnesive and non-NPOV.
-Hickoryhillster 15:42, 8 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clinton as Fulbrighter 

message: I removed Information Agency Time Plus - Information Referral Service, is the trusted source for business information, international market research, service from across the world. as I do not see the relevance, and it is copied verbatim from their website, and it is not neutral POV, and, it really makes no statement... whoever added this, was there some reason?  I don't get what Information Agency Time Plus has to do with the US Ministry of Propaganda. User:Pedant 22:55, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Information Agency Time Plus - Information Referral Service 

message: I'm not going to argue the issue about pseudonyms and USIA. There's a similar story out there about the State Department and Joe Reap. The issue here is Gizmodo as a source. I say it's not reliable; it's a blog. The author doesn't qualify for the expert exception, either. Shall we take this to RSN? Chris Troutman (talk) 16:44, 27 September 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: If you want. My impression is that it is a professional news website, rather than a self-published blog; per http://gizmodo.com/about it has an editor-in-chief, several editors, etc., as one would expect from a news organization, and per HuffPo and others it was bought together with other specialized websites by Univision for $135 million; that's not a price one pays for an amateur blog. If you have any specific reasons, rather than a general belief, for why Gizmodo does not meet WP:RS standards, I'd be interested to hear them.  Sandstein  17:11, 27 September 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: That there's money to be made by buying these content creators does not (in my opinion) make them reliable. I generally oppose giving reliability to HuffPo, Gawker, Salon, or the like although I know many such websites are frequently used here. I see you've found a book to cite so we need not argue about Gizmodo. Chris Troutman (talk) 17:24, 27 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Guy Sims Fitch 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The article has been tagged since 2015.  There has been no discussion on the talk page.  In the absence of any discussion, or if there has been the discussion has become dormant, I am remving the tag.  I'll add it is not clear what the neutrality issue is, and no satisfactory explanation has been given.---- Work permit (talk) 02:06, 1 September 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Neutrality 

message: There are two VIAF id's that may qualify her. VIAF (130711883) that already mentioned in Wikidata and VIAF (140094723). It be good idea to update Wikidata and include also the last ons. --geageaTalk 23:44, 4 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  VIAF