[iwar] [fc:In.PR.war,.US.gets.ready.to.turn.up.volume]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-11-04 18:42:06
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 18:42:06 -0800 (PST)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:In.PR.war,.US.gets.ready.to.turn.up.volume]
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In PR war, US gets ready to turn up volume

But more radio networks abroad may not reach large numbers.

By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 

WASHINGTON - America's movie stars may be universally known, and toes may
tap the world over to American music. But when it comes to the US government
getting out its message - especially to the Arab and Muslim populations -
the star-spangled know-how looks more like can't-do. 

The Voice of America's Arabic service reaches a paltry 2 percent of the Arab
population. Even Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admits the US is not
doing a very good job of telling the world about the war. And surveys
indicate that little US-government broadcasting - call it objective news or
plain-old propaganda - reaches the crucial under-30 audience among the
world's 1 billion Muslims.

But look out, world: Uncle Sam has decided he wants you as a listener. The
idea is to take what Americans supposedly do well - communications and the
media - and get back in the PR war that the US seems to have lost so far in
the terror war.

The US military is believed to be broadcasting propaganda messages (and
Taliban-banned music) from EC-130 planes over Afghanistan. But shortly,
Congress is expected to approve creation of Radio Free Afghanistan, and then
approve up to $30 million to create the Middle East Radio Network.

The Pentagon, too, has awarded a four-month, $400,000 contract to a PR firm
to present the US side of the war to 79 countries.

"There's the war of bombs and guns, and then there's the ... war for the
hearts and minds in that part of the world," says Norman Pattiz, a board
member of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), the State Department
entity that manages Voice of America. "Of course our enemy is winning it,
because we're not even there."

The US can do better just by getting into the game, most officials and media
experts agree. But it's not going to be a quick fix. The Pentagon's wartime
PR firm, the Rendon Group of Boston and Washington, can work quickly with
focus groups and local media to get out the US word. But it will confront
often antagonistic media and suspicious audiences.

The task to get new radio broadcasting up and running is even trickier. The
lead time to lease transmitters or build new ones is such that, a year from
now, US officials hope at best to reach 5 percent of the population in Arab
countries.

"We're playing catch-up," says Tom Korologos, a longtime radio journalist
and another IBB board member. "Al Jazeera [the dominant Arab news network]
has an audience of 300 million, but when we go over there, people ask us,
'Where are you guys? Where has the USA been?' "

What happened is this: At the end of the cold war, the US decided it could
dismantle much of its PR machinery. "Everybody said we're out of business if
the Berlin Wall falls, and it did, and we thought these [services] were
relics of the cold war," says Mr. Korologos. "But now, it's needed more than
ever."

In the post-cold-war years, national leaders took their cue from an American
public showing less and less interest in the world, despite intensifying
globalization. "I've been trying to convince the former administration, and
now this one, to go with Radio Free Afghanistan, but until Sept. 11, it was
all uphill," says US Rep. Edward Royce (R) of California, who first called
for the service's creation in 1996. "If the people of Afghanistan had been
given access to the truth, I don't think the Taliban could have taken the
country."

In the new climate, $14 million in funding for Radio Free Afghanistan over
the next two years is expected to sail through Congress. Royce aides say the
service is "ready to roll" as soon as funding for new transmitters and other
items comes through. Many who broadcast from Radio Free Europe to
Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion are still at the service, and can
quickly pick up broadcasts.

Start-up won't be quite so fast at the Middle East Radio Network. Plans for
the proposed $30 million network call for building or leasing a series of
transmitters at strategic sites around the region, with capabilities of
reaching listeners on AM, FM, and satellite waves - and in more than a dozen
languages.

Some of the transmitters have been negotiated for countries where the
governments don't want the deals publicized, officials say. Such
difficulties demonstrate the sensitivity over bringing US-style reporting to
a region of mostly government-controlled media.

But US broadcasters say they see a hunger for the services the new network
would provide - especially among young people. "We want to diversify to
reach all [the youths], from the kids throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers in
the West Bank to college students and tomorrow's leaders," says Mr. Pattiz.

Not only do people under 25 make up about 60 percent of the population in
the Arab region, but US broadcasters know that it is young Arab men who
embraced virulent anti-Americanism and became terrorists.

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