Voice of America v. Al Jazeera

[George L. Singleton]

This is a truncated quote from Ron Humphrey to save space.

Allowing the discussion to degrade into attacks on personal affiliations or pre-established ideas of entities takes away the ability of the the readers to actually compare the points for and against to test for validity.

For me I ask three main questions

1- Can it help
2- Might it hurt
3-is it possible to accomplish without active participation by the areas being considered.

If the first is true and the second not then as long as the third works let's do it. If there are more things behind the curtain that I don't see that can show it to do more harm than good than lay them out and lets discuss them.

Thanks for a very fair minded overview.

1. Voice of America helped us win the Cold War, and before that WW II.
Remember, not sure of your age, Edward R. Murrow who once headed the Voice of America?

2. The 9/11 BipartisanCommission dated July 2004 recommends that Voice of America, which comes under the BBG (Broadcasting Board of Governors, a bi-partisan grouping of distinguished Americans including whoever The Secretary of State is at the time) be expanded, funded better and have additional languages and more linguists [in today's most relevant languages, which now includes Pashto, Urdu and Punjabi, later two regarding Pakistan, first regarding both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Farsi of course as it relates primarily to Iran, but at a third level behind Pashto and Dari as relates to Afghanistan.]

see http://www.bbg.gov/bbg_aboutus.cfm

and note this short extract from the 9/11 made public July 2004 Report & Recommendations:

BEGIN QUOTE: Recognizing that Arab and Muslim audiences rely on satellite television and radio, the government has begun some promising initiatives in television and radio broadcasting to the Arab world, Iran, and Afghanistan. These efforts are beginning to reach large audiences. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has asked for much larger resources. It should get them. (Page 377) The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) was established under the United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (22 U.S.C. 6201). The BBG provides oversight and guidance to U.S. non-military international broadcast services, including Voice of America, Radio and TV Marti, WORLDNET Television and Film Service, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio Sawa, and the Middle East Television Network (METN). Radio Sawa is a region-wide Arabic language radio station that combines western and Arabic popular music with news broadcasts and specialized programming. METN is an Arabic language television station designed to bolster U.S. public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East. See GAO, State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors Expand Post-9/11 Efforts but Challenges Remain , GAO-04-1061T, Aug. 23, 2004. The pending Commerce, Justice, and State Department Appropriations bill, H.R. 4754, FY 2005, provides 65 million for broadcasting in Arabic ($20 million increase over President's request). Contacts: Mark Speight, Assistant General Counsel, IAT; Ernie Jackson, Senior Attorney END 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT 7 RECOMMENDATIONS QUOTE

3. The long term ideological war clearly began on 9/11 by the Islamic terrorists, who have benefitted as already documented herein from the services of Al Jazeera. It is important to recognize that Al Jazeera is not a for profit outfit but is funded by a single shiek out of the UAE, who is a long term oligarch [he overthrew his father before him while Dad was on vacation in Europe].

Again, thank you for keeping a broadbased, more opinion writers who belong to SWJ hopefully will focus as both soldiers and citizens on the long term propaganda war that came upon us, we did not go looking for it.

I repeat that the record, in my view, has shown Al Jazeera to be the advocate of terrorism and extremism in the guise of an all news and public affairs system which is owned and funded by one UAE Shiek, it is neither a non-profit as we understand same nor is it a for profit affair.

Voice of America is mandated as follows, and is of course taxpayer funded:

VOA CHARTER

To protect the integrity of VOA programming and define the organization's mission, the VOA Charter was drafted in 1960 and later signed into law on July 12, 1976, by President Gerald Ford. It reads:

The long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio. To be effective, the Voice of America must win the attention and respect of listeners. These principles will therefore govern Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts:

1. VOA will serve as a consistently reliable and authoritative source of news. VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.

2. VOA will represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.

3. VOA will present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively, and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies. (Public Law 94-350)

Thanks.