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Al Hurra gets more funding 29, December 2009

Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations.
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6 comments

Al Hurra, the US Government’s attempt at winning the hearts and minds of the Middle East by founding and running an Arab TV news channel, has received another $112m from Congress. This is despite Al Hurra being condemned as all but useless by a raft of commentators. It is widely (and correctly) seen as little more than US government propaganda. Witness, for example, Al Hurra’s ridiculous decision to continue to show a cooking programme when news that the founder of Hamas Sheikh Ahmad Yassin had been  assassinated by an Israeli air strike was breaking. Yet, because of governmental inertia when it comes to projects such as these and sunk-cost accounting there is no end in sight for the $650,000,000 white elephant.

Hat tip: al bab