No, this Obama-era law didn’t legalize propaganda and lead to Walz ‘happy warrior’ moniker

On the presidential campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have sought to cultivate an image of a positive, joyful message to contrast what they say is Republican nominee Donald Trump’s negative campaign.

Walz says, "We are joyful warriors," Harris recounted Aug. 7 at an Eau Claire, Wisconsin rally, their second joint appearance. It’s been a common theme in their subsequent appearances together.

Many news outlets and opinion pieces have reported on the Harris-Walz strategy, with some referring to Walz as a "happy warrior," chosen by Harris because of his upbeat personality.

An Aug. 13 Instagram post saw a more sinister motive in the media reporting, and blamed a former Democratic president.

The Instagram post shared a video that showed multiple cable news clips with journalists or pundits referring to Walz as a "happy warrior."

The Instagram video’s caption called it  "extreme propaganda," and said it was rooted in a Barack Obama-era law.

"It used to be illegal to use media outlets to push propaganda on the American people, it was still covertly done but not as bad as this," the caption said. "Obama legalized government propaganda during his time as president. … Obama’s change to the law is why we are seeing so many news clips all repeating the same Democrat talking points."

But the statement mischaracterizes a law passed during Obama's administration that was related to government-produced media content, not privately owned media such as the cable news outlets seen in the Instagram video.

The term can be traced to "The Character of the Happy Warrior," a 1807 William Wordsworth poem that described someone being brave, generous, having strong morals and other positive traits that "every man in arms should wish to be."

The term emerged in politics by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1924, when Roosevelt used it in a speech to describe New York Gov. Alfred Smith while unsuccessfully nominating Smith to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee at the party’s national convention in New York. One Roosevelt scholar said a Smith adviser had added the term to Roosevelt’s speech, The Federalist wrote.

The nickname has been applied to multiple politicians since, including former Republican President Ronald Reagan and former Democratic Vice President and Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey.

Harris and Walz have embraced this image.

"Thank you for bringing back the joy," Walz told Harris after she introduced him as her running mate Aug. 6 in Philadelphia.

The next day at a campaign stop in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Harris said, "And understand, in this fight, as Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors." 

She again used the term "joyful warriors" the same day at a Detroit rally. Walz accused Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, of trying to "steal the joy" from the country. "Our next president brings the joy. She emanates the joy," Walz said.

Both Harris and Walz referred to campaigning with "joy" at an Aug. 9 Glendale, Arizona, rally. At an Aug. 10 Las Vegas rally, Walz again said Harris "brought out the joy in our politics" and said their work is tough, "but we can be happy doing it."

Despite the Instagram video’s attempt to link the network reporting on this to Obama, it has no connection to the former president. (Although Obama did use the term "happy warrior" to describe then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2012.)

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The Instagram post’s narrator referred to a law change during Obama’s administration that she said "legalized government propaganda" and led to the news outlets "repeating the same Democratic talking points."

The post didn’t specify the law but it’s likely referring to Obama’s signing in 2012 of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which PolitiFact found was the subject of misinformation in 2019. 

False social media posts in recent years have said the law legalized government propaganda in the U.S.

The law has no effect on independent, privately owned media outlets, such as CNN, NBC and MSNBC, which were shown in the Instagram video. 

The bill Obama signed removed some restrictions on U.S.-funded and generated news produced for overseas audiences from being broadcast to U.S. audiences, such as programming produced by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which "broadcasts news and information about the United States and the world to audiences abroad."

Among those programs run by the agency are Voice of America, an international broadcaster that reaches an audience of more than 350 million people worldwide. Other agency programs include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. 

Before the law was passed, those outlets’ programming could be viewed or listened to in broadcast quality only in foreign countries. Much of that programming was already available in the U.S. online. The change in the law allows content produced by the government to be made available in broadcast quality in the U.S. upon request.

An Instagram post said videos of media talking about Walz as a "happy warrior" are proof of government propaganda legalized by Barack Obama.

The Harris-Walz ticket has sought to portray itself as "joyful warriors." Many news outlets reported on this strategy and used the term "happy warrior" to describe Walz. It’s a common political nickname that has been given to U.S. politicians since at least 1924.

An Obama-era law eased U.S. broadcast restrictions for government-funded news, such as what’s produced by the U.S. Agency for Global Media. The law does not apply to privately owned media companies such as those featured in the Instagram video.

We rate the claim False.