President Trump’s ‘worldwide network’ is a great idea. But it already exists.

“Something has to be done,” President Donald Trump tweeted Nov 26. Frustrated by CNN, with which he has an ongoing beef, President Trump suggested that the United States create its own “worldwide network to show the World the way we really are — GREAT!” Despite the proposal’s origin in conflict with the press, it’s a really good idea. So good, in fact, that under another president’s watch — Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 — it happened. Seventy-six years ago, the world was a dark place. The radio broadcast that eventually became Voice of America was created to give people trapped behind Nazi lines accurate, truthful news about the war, in contrast with Nazi propaganda.

So what is Voice of America? From that single World War II radio broadcast we grew into a multimedia global television, radio and digital network. We broadcast in 46 languages to more than 60 countries. Just-released figures show it grew 16 percent in 2017 to 275.2 million weekly viewers, listeners and users. Yet what is most important isn’t the size of our audience. It’s their trust: Eighty-five percent of our global audience say they trust us. Why? We think our credibility is rooted in the interpretation of the second half of Trump’s proposal. We, too, think our job is to show our country as it really is — through journalism based on fact. We export the First Amendment. For a big chunk of the world, we are the free press. For more than three-quarters of a century, we’ve worked to deserve that role.

[Amanda Bennett is director of Voice of America.]