Also of interest today..
This from the Wall Street Journal..
"We've been watching the debate over Al-Hurra, the U.S.-funded Middle East TV channel that has lately developed a reputation as a friendly forum for terrorists and Islamic radicals. A bipartisan group of Congressmen has called for Al-Hurra's news director, former CNN producer Larry Register, to resign -- and it's time he and his supervisors gave taxpayers some answers.
With an annual budget over $70 million, Al-Hurra is part of the long arm of America's public diplomacy in the Middle East. The network was established to provide a credible source of information in the region, in a market dominated by Al-Jazeera ..."
How al-Hurrah is on the daily reading list.. and while it is true that it is beginning to report the sense of futility that is creeping into every Westerner involved in Iraq.. it is not yet, as far as one has been able to discern, become a mouthpiece for terrorists or Muslim radicals.. unless presenting them as the extremists they are..
al-Hurrah is becoming more friendly towards the Iraqi search for self-determination.. but this in itself might be disturbing to some in Washington who would sooner see their efforts, to date, as successfull, and on the timeline.
To take al-Hurrah to task over it's less than 'Stars And Stripes' format, would be a huge public relations blunder on the part of the Americans. If anything, they should be putting money into more media outlets in the area, to express in terms the Iraqi man on the street can understand, what it is the West is trying to do, and how Fundamentalists are blocking the progress..
To explain to that man on the street, how desparate the West is to get out of their country.. and to leave a stable government in charge..