Government-funded news operations are proving to be ineffective abroad, and the United States is losing an information war to foreign rivals including Russia and the ISIS terrorist organization, a federal agency report warned, according to Reuters.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which runs U.S. government broadcasting to foreign audiences, including radio, television and digital efforts, argued that the firewall separating the semi-official news organizations from U.S. national security agencies is "overblown"; the BBG itself is in charge of enforcing that firewall, the British newswire noted.

Broadcasters at outlets such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – often credited with countering Soviet influence behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War - are not always in tune with U.S. foreign policy objectives, the BBG report warned.

"Competitors with anti-U.S. messaging are fomenting an information war - and winning - while U.S. international broadcasting is challenged to keep pace with competitors and changes in the media landscape," it said. "U.S. international communications strategy should be rebuilt from the ground up," the report recommended.

Upon Russia's annexation of Crimea last year, for example, there had been a modest uptick in programming, but Washington's pro-Ukraine stance was overshadowed by the Kremlin's media machine, Western diplomats, congressional aides and other experts told Reuters.

Russia spends a reported $400 million to $500 million a year on foreign information efforts, while the United States funds its Russian language services with about $20 million; Moscow, meanwhile, has gone so far as to block U.S. government broadcasts, according to Jeff Trimble, the deputy director of the BBG's International Broadcasting Bureau.

"There's no money. We're Lichtenstein against what the Russians are spending," an unidentified Western diplomat argued.

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said this month that the United States needs to rethink its media outreach.

"Our nation is getting beat by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin propaganda, and our international broadcasting is floundering," Royce said. "It's unacceptable," he added.

The California Republican has sponsored legislation with bipartisan support to reform the BBG, Reuters detailed.