Posted on 05/02/2004 10:50:00 PM PDT by quidnunc
Since the shock of September 11th, and parallel to military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. government officials in various agencies have sought to "win hearts and minds" in the Arab and Muslim world by crafting publicity schemes and media projects. All of those produced so far have been characterized by a combination of bombast, naivete, and silliness that, according to many friendly watchers and listeners in the targeted publics, does more to undermine than to reinforce American credibility.
First there was Charlotte Beers, a former executive at such leading advertising firms as Ogilvy & Mather, named Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy under Colin Powell, soon after the Twin Towers and Pentagon were attacked. Beers was handed millions of dollars by the Congress to try out Powell's theory of "branding" — that U.S. policies could be sold to the Arab and Muslim masses like so much Coca-Cola.
Beers' product, however, turned out to be seriously flawed, including an official State Department website that conveniently steered foreign Muslims to the Saudi-backed "Wahhabi lobby" organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The State website she inspired also showed American Muslim women in full covering, or hijab, as well as Wahhabi mosques, suggesting that Muslims in America lived more or less like Muslims in Saudi Arabia.
Beers resigned her post early last year. But about the same time she was charging around Washington, another alleged media magician, named Norman Pattiz, was also active on the scene. Pattiz is the founder of Westwood One, a Southern California AM radio conglomerate. He had been named by Bill Clinton to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency with oversight over U.S. media programs directed abroad, including the Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Marti, and Radio Free Asia.
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