Your tax dollars ($350 million) at work: broadcasting Bush admin propaganda to spread democracy

[ProSense]

Shocking

06.22.08 -- 9:15PM
By Josh Marshall

From WaPo ...

Al-Hurra -- "the Free One" in Arabic -- is the centerpiece of a U.S. government campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East. Taxpayers have spent $350 million on the project. But more than four years after it began broadcasting, the station is widely regarded as a flop in the Arab world, where it has struggled to attract viewers and overcome skepticism about its mission.

Beyond all the dingbat problems with Bush-era 'public diplomacy, this seems like the key point ...

According to critics, the U.S. government miscalculated in assuming that al-Hurra could repeat the success of Radio Free Europe during the Cold War, when information-starved listeners behind the Iron Curtain tuned in on their shortwave radios.

Al-Hurra, by contrast, faces cutthroat competition. About 200 other stations beam Arabic-language programming to satellite dishes reaching even the poorest neighborhoods in the Middle East and North Africa. More rivals loom, including an Arabic-language news channel that the BBC is set to launch this year.

Symptomatic of a much broader and more profound failure of comprehension.

On edit: And then there is Zimbabwe.

[ProSense]

1. Well, it will

be over soon. How much more money can Bush waste in seven months?

[JackRiddler]

2. You gotta be kidding me.

This crew has been in charge or dominating US politics since 1980.

And where others would think of it as lame duck time, for these guys the last seven months mean a free-for-all. They're at least talking about WW3!

And who says they're going to go down in November without stealing it again?

[ProSense]

3. I don't even know you, but thanks for your response.

"And who says they're going to go down in November without stealing it again?"

Should we give up?

[JackRiddler]

5. Is that what I said?

And do you need to know people on a discussion board?

[ProSense]

6. Seriously,

the first comment was a non-serious, slightly sarcastic and very rhetorical question in the hopes of getting comments relevant to the OP.

[JackRiddler]

7. OK

[Tutonic]

4. This was a Karen (Big Foot) Hughes special.

They brought back Lard Ass to start this up. She needs to stick to scaring hikers in the Redwoods.