Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

News today in the Washington Post that after blowing $350 million of the US taxpayer's money on an Arabic-language TV network by the name of al-Hurra, the bureau's satellite link was unplugged with little explanation a few weeks ago by a local company, making it impossible to broadcast live. Since then, staffers have had to use a studio controlled by the Egyptian secret police, who have warned guests not to say anything controversial on the air. Which is funny when you consider al-Hurra means "The Free One" in Arabic, and is the centerpiece of a U.S. government campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East. Created in 2003, as a counterweight to hugely popular al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based network that has built a large following in the Middle East with aggressive coverage of the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Seems like the boobs at al-Hurra, didn't have much of a clue... In 2004, when an Israeli airstrike killed the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, virtually all Arabic news channels interrupted their regular programming. Al-Hurra continued with a cooking show. I guess you have to get your priorities right!

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Note to US government... This is not a map of the US!