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US Launches Program for "Intl." Journalists
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has launched a program to invite foreign journalists to the United States to attend seminars at a number of American universities and watch journalists at work, with observers believing the target to be improving a deeply bruised image, especially among Muslims.
"The Department of State is determined to forge partnerships with our private sector so that Americans of all stripes, all traditions, all ethnic groups and also all walks of life might be able to help to carry the story of democratic progress and the progress of liberty," Rice said Tuesday, December13 , at a press conference. "We especially look forward to working with our partners."
"Our Edward R. Murrow Journalism Fellows Program will invite100 international media professionals to engage with journalists and participate in leading journalism schools here in the United States," Rice added, according to a press release on the event from the State Department and the Aspen Institute.
The foreign journalists will attend seminars "on journalistic principles" and have the opportunity " to observe the US press in action."
Under Secretary Karen Hughes, Assistant Secretary Dina Habib Powell, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute Walter Isaacson, and Dean of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication Geoffrey Cowan attended the launch.
"Communism, Terror"
"Sixty years ago, the US was faced with a wholly new global challenge to freedom: the spread of communism," said Isaacson.
"Our nation's leaders responded with a new doctrine and a set of innovative institutions that wove together America's interests with its ideals, such as the Marshall Plan, the World Bank, NATO and the UN. Now, we are faced with a new and serious challenge in the21 st century, that of fanatical terrorism.
"Once again, it requires a doctrine that weaves together our idealism and our realism. I hope this journalism program we are launching today can become part of this historic effort."
"Democracy cannot work without the free flow of information and ideas that is made possible through an independent and effective press," said Cowan.
"The Murrow Program adds an exciting and important new component to those that the USIA and State Department have offered in the past. It harnesses the resources of American journalism schools. All of our schools expect the international journalists to learn from our courses -- and we all expect our students to learn from our visitors."
Hughes' and Powell's appointment earlier this year followed reports from inside the US administration as well as from policy institutes and universities warning that in the last few years American standing in the world, particularly in Islamic countries, has plummeted to new lows.
Hughes helps ensure that public diplomacy is practiced in harmony with public affairs and traditional diplomacy to advance US interests and security and to provide the moral basis for US leadership in the world, US State Department said.
Dina Habib Powell was nominated by President Bush to be Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs in April and Secretary Rice has also designated her as Deputy Under Secretary and principal deputy to Hughes.
The first foreign trip of Hughes, which took her to the Middle East, was dubbed "absurd" by a US analyst, casting heavy doubts on possibilities of success in her job to improve a badly tarnished US image abroad, specially in Arab and Muslim countries.
On a five-day trip to the three Arab and Muslim heavyweights of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Hughes learned that a lot more than “Engage, Exchange, Educate and Empower” have been lost in translation between Americans and Muslims.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/14/article01.shtml
"Our Edward R. Murrow Journalism Fellows Program will invite100 international media professionals to engage with journalists and participate in leading journalism schools here in the United States," Rice added, according to a press release on the event from the State Department and the Aspen Institute.
The foreign journalists will attend seminars "on journalistic principles" and have the opportunity " to observe the US press in action."
Under Secretary Karen Hughes, Assistant Secretary Dina Habib Powell, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute Walter Isaacson, and Dean of the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication Geoffrey Cowan attended the launch.
"Communism, Terror"
"Sixty years ago, the US was faced with a wholly new global challenge to freedom: the spread of communism," said Isaacson.
"Our nation's leaders responded with a new doctrine and a set of innovative institutions that wove together America's interests with its ideals, such as the Marshall Plan, the World Bank, NATO and the UN. Now, we are faced with a new and serious challenge in the21 st century, that of fanatical terrorism.
"Once again, it requires a doctrine that weaves together our idealism and our realism. I hope this journalism program we are launching today can become part of this historic effort."
"Democracy cannot work without the free flow of information and ideas that is made possible through an independent and effective press," said Cowan.
"The Murrow Program adds an exciting and important new component to those that the USIA and State Department have offered in the past. It harnesses the resources of American journalism schools. All of our schools expect the international journalists to learn from our courses -- and we all expect our students to learn from our visitors."
Hughes' and Powell's appointment earlier this year followed reports from inside the US administration as well as from policy institutes and universities warning that in the last few years American standing in the world, particularly in Islamic countries, has plummeted to new lows.
Hughes helps ensure that public diplomacy is practiced in harmony with public affairs and traditional diplomacy to advance US interests and security and to provide the moral basis for US leadership in the world, US State Department said.
Dina Habib Powell was nominated by President Bush to be Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs in April and Secretary Rice has also designated her as Deputy Under Secretary and principal deputy to Hughes.
The first foreign trip of Hughes, which took her to the Middle East, was dubbed "absurd" by a US analyst, casting heavy doubts on possibilities of success in her job to improve a badly tarnished US image abroad, specially in Arab and Muslim countries.
On a five-day trip to the three Arab and Muslim heavyweights of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Hughes learned that a lot more than “Engage, Exchange, Educate and Empower” have been lost in translation between Americans and Muslims.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/14/article01.shtml
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CAIRO, December14 , 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - A $ 300million Pentagon psychological warfare operation includes plans to place pro-American messages in foreign media outlets without disclosing the US government as the source, USA Today reported on Wednesday, December14 .
The media campaign is being designed “to counter terrorist ideology and sway foreign audiences to support American policies,” the paper said quoting one of the military officials in charge of the program.
The program is run by psychological warfare experts at the US Special Operations Command and will operate throughout the world, including in allied nations and in countries where the US is not involved in armed conflict, the daily said.
The military wants to fight the information war against Al-Qaeda through newspapers, websites, radio, television and "novelty items" such as T-shirts and bumper stickers, it added.
The description of the program by Mike Furlong, deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, provides the most detailed look to date at the Pentagon's global campaign, the paper said.
The three companies handling the campaign include the Lincoln Group, the company being investigated by the Pentagon for paying Iraqi newspapers to run pro-US stories to polish the tarnished image of the US occupation of the oil-rich country, it added.
'Made in the USA'
The USA Today said that the military officials involved with the campaign said they are not planning to place false stories in foreign news outlets clandestinely.
But the military will not always reveal its role in distributing pro-American messages, Furlong said.
"While the product may not carry the label, 'Made in the USA,' we will respond truthfully if asked" by journalists, Furlong told USA Today in a videoconference interview.
The paper said that Furlong declined to give examples of specific "products," which he said would include articles, advertisements and public-service announcements.
The military's communications work in Iraq has recently drawn controversy with disclosures that Lincoln Group and the US military secretly paid journalists and news outlets to run pro-American stories.
"I think it's absolutely wrong for the government to do this," Patrick Butler, vice president of the International Center for Journalists in Washington, was quoted as saying by the New York Times on Thursday, December1 .
"Ethically, it's indefensible," he added.
The Pentagon's first public relations contract with Lincoln was awarded in 2004 for about $ 5million with the stated purpose of accurately informing the Iraqi people of American goals and gaining their support.
Last June, the Special Operations Command in Tampa awarded Lincoln and two other companies a multimillion-dollar contract to support psychological operations.
Ken Bacon, a Clinton administration Pentagon spokesman who heads the non-profit group Refugees International, said that placing pro-US content in foreign media "makes people suspicious of the open press."
Jumana Al-Tamimi, an editor for the Gulf News, an English-language newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates, told the paper that the Iraq example may cause Arabs to doubt any pro-American messages.
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2005-12/14/article07.shtml