What America Isn’t Hearing

Please, visitors, do not tap on the glass in the TV studio. It disturbs the journalists.

If you’re looking for taxpayer-funded news without interruptions from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, check out the Voice of America studios, where you’ll learn about news that you’re technically not allowed to hear. (VOA is barred from broadcasting over U.S. airwaves, but listening online is perfectly legal.)

Background: VOA started in 1942, when it broadcast into Germany in an effort to undercut Nazi propaganda. Its influence has since expanded; it currently broadcasts TV, radio and Internet programs to more than 134 million people in 45 languages, mostly in places where there is either only state-sponsored or partisan media.

Highlights: After going through tight security, you enter a main hallway filled with murals about Social Security. (The VOA building used to belong to the Social Security Administration.) After learning about VOA’s history and current efforts (Fun fact: The broadcasts to China are jammed by its government, so VOA engineers work to un-jam the jammers), you head to the control room to see a television broadcast. During our recent tour, they were filming something about goats frolicking to be beamed to Iran. Then, after a quick stare at the radio broadcasters, you take in a film about VOA journalists around the world.

Gift Shop: None, but every visitor gets a calendar! And some brochures.