US Television in Middle East Broadcasts Terror Messages

Only government could be this dense.

If you were to create a television station in the Middle East, would you think that it would be a good idea to hire managers of the station that spoke Arabic? Well the US Government sposored Al Hurra station failed to do that and the station was slowly infiltrated by those that had a decidedly different message than the one expected to go out.

Shows that had rants on destroying Israel and agreeing with Iranian leaders were fairly common. But the madness that is the bureaucracy to fail to have anyone on staff that understood what was being aired is amazing. And you wonder why we are having trouble winning the hearts and minds of the Middle East.

The station’s gaffes have included broadcasting in December 2006 a 68-minute call to arms against Israelis by a senior figure of the terrorist group Hezbollah; deferential coverage of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial conference; and a factually flawed piece on a splinter group of Orthodox Jews who oppose the state of Israel, according to the Wall Street Journal, which has reported the network’s travails for months.
At the hearing, Blaya and other officials assured lawmakers that some of the staffers involved in the controversial broadcasts had been fired. They also said the network now has an assignment desk, staffed by Arabic-speaking editors. And the network’s vice president of news has hired an Arabic speaker to help monitor its broadcasts and ensure the material is consistent with al Hurra’s mission. The Blotter