This is a story on media and free speech in the Dubya Era.
Abjeez [=sisters] is an Iranian-Swedish band led by the eponymous sisters Safoura and Melody Safavi, doing ska in Farsi. They were little-known outside the Iranian ex-pat community -- until the husband of one made this YouTube video for their single "DemoKracy":
What made this video an issue is that two of the three involved worked for American media.
A video criticising US policy in the Middle East while lampooning news media, with Iraq footage of US military and terrorist bombs and IEDs exploding. No wonder it incensed this US right-wing blogger:
Produced by an obscure Swedish-Iranian band called Abjeez, the music video is themed in and around a TV newsroom, with the anchor and a reporter, played respectively by Safoura and Melody Safavi, mocking the United States and democracy.
The "reporter," shown at right holding the microphone in the first part of the video, is the VOA [Voice of America -DoDo] employee, Melody Safavi, whose married name is Arbabi. This blogger has learned that VOA fired her after an Iranian former political prisoner filed a complaint to Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, but her husband Saman Arbabi, who directed the video, reportedly is still on VOA staff.
Be fired for free speech off-line, these people's idea of demokracy! What this is all about -- is barely concealed by this blogger with the aptly named site PoliticalWarfare.org:
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which governs VOA, has long denied problems with its controversial Iran services. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has been raising concerns for a year about the broadcasts to the Islamic republic... It's time for BBG and State to catch up with the new leadership at RFE/RL [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] and tackle the larger problems of US broadcasting into Iran.
What Tom Coburn critizised VOA for was 'providing a platform to critics' of the Bush admin during the Presidential address rather than 'effectively communicating official US foreign policy'. In other words, functioning according to -- get this -- its principles as public radio:
- 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.
Kind of like the BBC for Britain and Deutsche Welle for Germany. But the bold armchair warriors want another straight propaganda channel, like what RFE was turned into (again after the Cold War).
Indeed another right-wing blogger pushes it further, after re-telling a story he thinks parallels the current:
It's 1948 and 70-75% of Voice of America broadcasts are outsourced. NBC, with complete control over the broadcasts it produced, hired a Cuban author and a Venezuelan supervisor to produce a series built on the theme "Know North America" in Spanish for Latin America.
In one episode, a Latin American is shown around Cheyenne, Wyoming, and told the history of the state by a guide. The Latin asks, "Do we still have Indians in Wyoming?" The guide answers, "Yes...Our Indian maidens run in races dressed in nothing but feathers."
in another episode, the Latin American is in Texas and asks, "Don't you have a saying that Texas was born in sin but New England was born in hypocrisy?"
Needless to say, NBC and CBS lost their contracts and VOA took full control over their products.
So in this loon's mind, mocking Americans on air (to boot, with mild jokes Americans themselves tell) is equivalent to criticism of foreign policy in people's free time. And the announced conclusion:
...One thought, do away with the BBG and bring VOA and other information activities under a central cross-agency authority supervised by foreign service officers, as well as DoD equivalents, in key positions. This of course would mean more FSOs and civilian-trained senior DOD officers (which some readers may be surprised is a larger than expected percentage). This would also mean better handle and synchronization on America's information activities.
And the credibility of such newsmaking would be... the information warriors never learn.
(This is a re-post of a diary on European Tribune.)