Radio Free Dumbass

The ABC News blog, The Blotter lets us know that George Bush's highly trained experts in all things broken have been handing broadcast airtime to terrorists. Just a hop, skip and Jesus away from reality. Is there anything these fools can do right? From the article by Justin Rood,

"Al Hurra television, the U.S. government's $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program.
That might explain why critics say the service has recently been caught broadcasting terrorist messages, including an hour-long tirade on the importance of anti-Jewish violence, among other questionable pieces."

The sad part of this is that I'm not even a little bit surprised. Given the Bush regime's penchant for hiring ideologically and religiously loyal dimwits, regardless of qualifications, this is business as usual. The man in charge, Joaquin Blaya has been an executive at Spanish language broadcasters and founded a series of professional tennis tournaments in Latin America. I'm sure Mr. Blaya did very well in that market, being of Latin extraction and all. His News Director, Larry Register is likely going to take the fall and a well deserved tumble that will be. From a piece on NPR,

"...Larry Register, who doesn't speak Arabic, has given voice to terrorists, airing a lengthy live broadcast of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, a live interview with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya and yet another with an al-Qaida operative."

The Blotter piece continues to inform us that,

"...the network's news division also had no assignment desk, he said. That left decision making over al Hurra's content in the hands of its reporters and producers, who are, according to Blaya, hastily-hired Arabic speaking journalists with insufficient understanding of Western Journalistic practices or the network's pro-Western mission."

Well , not that al Hurra has much of anything to do with journalism in the first place, it is at best a propaganda organ of the American government. Still, a complete absence of oversight is the hallmark of the Bush team's strategy in everything else, so why should a very expensive, new satellite channel be any different?

Source Watch fills in some details,

"The Hill reported in July 2004 that nearly half of the Voice of America's staff signed a petition complaining that the Broadcasting Board of Governors launched "new services in the Middle East with no editorial accountability" while cutting back VoA programs in the region. One VoA editor called the new Middle East networks - Radio Sawa, Al Hurra and Radio Farda - "expensive and ill advised." The VoA petition claims the new networks "provide inadequate news coverage and do not operate under VoA's charter, which guarantees balanced reporting."

Even the established American propaganda machine sneers at this new effort. Good job Mr. President! Have a pretzel. Sometimes I wish I could take a time machine into the future, just to hear the historians laughing at this chapter of American history. What a sick shame that so much blood has been spilled by Chimpasaurus Tex and his hand picked gang of retardoholics. Is it 2009 yet?

Tip of the lid to the ever amazing Crooks & Liars.