Free Republic

CAIRO, Egypt - Even before its first broadcast, a satellite television station financed by the U.S. government and directed at Arab viewers is drawing fire in the Middle East as an American attempt to destroy Islamic values and brainwash the young. Al-Hurra, or The Free One, is to start broadcasting Saturday. President Bush (news - web sites) has promised the news station, which will build up to 24-hour programming within a month, will "cut through the hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world." It already has landed a one-on-one interview with Bush. White House Press Secretary Scott...

Arabs slam Washington's TV channel US-funded news station seen as Bush bid to spread propaganda and to undermine Islamic values CAIRO - Even before its first broadcast, a satellite television station financed by the US government and directed at Arab viewers is drawing fire in the Middle East as an American attempt to destroy Islamic values and brainwash the young. Al-Hurra, or The Free One, is to start broadcasting today. US President George W. Bush has promised that the news station, which will build up to 24-hour programming within a month, will 'cut through the hateful propaganda that fills the...

WASHINGTON – The federal government is broadcasting Britney Spears and foul-mouthed rapper Eminem to ultratraditional Arab countries. Critics believe this is giving the U.S. a black eye in a part of the world that already believes Western culture is degenerate. "We are becoming a caricature of ourselves,” says veteran Reagan administration official Faith Whittlesey. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees Voice of America, says the music beamed to Arab nations by its Radio Sawa is "light rock.” "Oh, no. It is rap music,” Whittlesey insisted to NewsMax.com. A former ambassador to Switzerland, she noted: "Music is an important...

from the July 17, 2002 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0717/p09s04-cojh.html Rays of hope in reaching the young Arab mindBy John HughesSALT LAKE CITY - Reaching a skeptical Arab audience with the straight story about America is a daunting challenge.But for those whose job it is to accomplish this, there are occasional rays of hope.Take this e-mail from a student in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad to an American government radio station: "My examinations are so soon so I stay up late at night, so I found in magic and charming way that your radio programs show my most old and new favorite...

<p>The Bush administration took its case for toppling Saddam Hussein directly to the Iraqi people yesterday, with a radio broadcast by the Pentagon's No. 3 official urging Iraqis to rise up against the dictator.</p> <p>"The future that we see for Iraq is a future that would be based on the Iraqi people freeing themselves from the oppression they are now suffering," Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith said in an interview with the U.S.-funded Radio Sawa.</p>

Mix top-ten American and Arabic pop tunes with cultural and sports headlines from Baghdad, President Bush's weekly radio address, and hard-hitting commentary from leading conservative political journals, and you have the sound of Radio Sawa, the hip replacement for Voice of America's (VOA) now-defunct Arabic service in the Middle East. Formally known as the Middle East Radio Network (MERN), the Arabic-language pilot operation appeals to young people in the region — about 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30 — and provides fast-paced, substantive, and uncensored news that acts as a counter to the sensationalistic...

KUWAIT (AP) - Young Arab listeners rave about the cool international playlist on the new U.S. government radio station designed just for them _ but they complain that when the programming switches from music to news, it deteriorates into propaganda. In targeting those 30 and under - 60 percent of the Arab world's 280 million population - Radio Sawa has ditched the news and public affairs focus of the Voice of America Arabic-language service that it replaced. Its music-heavy programming resembles a youth-oriented station in the United States, only without the commercials. While U.S. pop stations use music to draw...