I thought democracies didn't engage in propaganda...

Of course, that's the ideal, but the United States government has been engaging in propaganda since before they described the Japanese, in a post-Pearl Harbor message of how to recognize the enemy via racial profiling, as "hairier" than the friendly Chinese. (I have no idea whether this is true, and to be honest I don't care to find out, but I do know that this same description was released later, when Japan was pacified and China was communist, as a way to recognize the Chinese.) Apparently, however, the Feds aren't satisfied with feeding their own people obnoxious tripe, and will now spend $75 million to give it to the people of Iran, too.

Not only is this a shameless waste of money, it's also immoral. The people elect their government for themselves, and for the elected government of one nation to presume to know what is best fo a group of people which had no part in its election is as odious as the government of a cruel despot. Not only should we not try to spread propaganda in other countries, but we shouldn't get involved in them at all - it ruins the entire ideal of American government.