This week the Washington Post will be taking a two-part, front page look at the failure of al-Hurra, an Arabic-language propaganda network financed by the U.S. government and created to win those ever-elusive hearts and minds in the Middle East. But let’s save you some time because the reason for this $350 million dollar failure is pretty much summed up in these three lines:
[A] succession of executives who either had little experience in television or could not speak Arabic.
One news anchor greeted the station's predominantly Muslim audience on Easter by declaring, "Jesus is risen today!"
In 2004, when an Israeli airstrike killed the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, virtually all Arabic news channels interrupted their regular programming. Al-Hurra continued with a cooking show.
And now that the mystery of why al-Hurra only manages to attract 2% of its target audience is solved, perhaps the Washington Post could take some time to investigate the Pentagon sponsored propaganda program that propelled us into a war in Iraq. The one that has cost more than $500 billion, 4,103 American and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. Because the Washington Post still hasn’t bothered to report on that story.