The Foreign Service Journal, May 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2021 19 Speaking Out is the Journal ’s opinion forum, a place for lively discussion of issues affecting the U.S. Foreign Service and American diplomacy. The views expressed are those of the author; their publication here does not imply endorse- ment by the American Foreign Service Association. Responses are welcome; send them to journal@afsa.org. media machines have found it unprofit- able to present both sides fairly. This pervasive media bias is tough to witness from abroad, especially while championing American democratic ideals in public. Perhaps PD practitioners can do what American media refuse to do: allow for and encourage open, respectful analy- sis in the marketplace of ideas. There are currently hundreds if not thousands of media literacy programs funded, executed and sustained through U.S. diplomatic missions across the world. We should use these opportuni- ties to present such difficult issues to foreign audiences in the spirit (if not the practice) of American freedom of speech and the press. Showcasing the Marketplace of Ideas For example: We frequently criticize countries in which oligarchs control most media outlets and therefore what publics get to consume. We should accompany the same criticismwith the admission that The Washington Post is owned by the world’s richest man, The New York Times ’ market cap runs in the billions and News Corp’s billions more. How do the bottom lines at those publicly traded companies influence which headlines make it above the fold? We rightly champion freedomof religion the world over and immediately denounce anti-Semitismwhenever it surfaces in public channels. Those are the right things to do. But should “hate speech” be banned? Who determines what is hate speech? Where does it go once it is disallowed onmainstreamplatforms? Foreign audiences should be able to consider venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale’s argument in defense of free speech without fear of being shushed or canceled: “As a Jewish man whose 100-year-old Bubbie (grandmother) lost many of her close and extended family in the Holocaust, I am disgusted by people who deny it. But when we restrict the free and open debate of ideas—no matter how asinine—we put ourselves into dangerous territory that leads to arbitrary violations of our liberty.” Visitors to our overseas PD events should be able to view rapper Killer Mike’s anguished appeal to Atlantans after the George Floyd killing, and analyze why he had to say to CNN: “Stop feeding fear and anger every day.” They should be encouraged to wonder why journalists like Matthew Yglesias and Glenn Greenwald left Vox and The Intercept, outlets they co-founded. This piece, itself, with its pointed callout of American mainstreammedia, should be picked apart via critical think- ing, kindness and cooperation, not agita- tion or us-versus-them dismissals. American minds may be too mesmer- ized by their own media machines to engage each other in liberal discourse, but that doesn’t mean we can’t set a bet- ter example abroad. During the Cold War, public diplo- macy played an outsized role in showing audiences behind the iron curtain that values such as free speech and the pro- motion of a diverse marketplace of ideas were what made America great. Despite today’s political polarization, it remains a winning formula. n