Fighting Terror with Comments on Arabic Blogs

"We just a few weeks ago, for the first time, engaged in Arabic on blogs," Karen Hughes, the U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy, told reporter Tara Copp. "We have what's called here a 'digital outreach team' ... that is actively going on the Arabic blogs and responding to misinformation and disinformation and propaganda and rumors with facts. And we're very above board that it's the digital outreach team of the State Department." That's just one new media venture for Hughes. Her office recently gave "State Department exchange students mini-camcorders," writes Copp. "The students recorded their American experiences and will post the videos to YouTube." Hughes herself took a camcorder to Mexico, to post the footage on her video blog (which the Center for Media and Democracy couldn't find online). Hughes added, "We just took the U.S. wrestling team to Tehran and we brought our first groups of exchange participants over to America from Iran. We're going to be doing more of that this year."