U.S. Government

FCC Killed the Radio Study (But Will Now Investigate)

U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Kevin Martin has launched investigations into two reports on media ownership by FCC staff that were never released. One study found that local ownership of TV stations correlates with more news coverage.

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Glock Shock in Iraq (Or, What the Lincoln Group Did Last Year With Your $19 Million)

Willem Marx, a recent graduate from Oxford, dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. He applied for an internship in which he would "pitch story ideas" and "interact with the local media" in Iraq. That's how the U.S. government-funded Lincoln Group advertised it. Sent off to Baghdad with virtually no training, Marx was soon packing a loaded Glock and helping buy good press for America--$3 million in cash in his apartment safe and another $16 million coming for "news," PR and advertising.

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Everybody's Doing It: Even More Journalists on U.S. Government Payroll

El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language newspaper owned by the Miami Herald's corporate parent, has been receiving negative attention lately. Two of its reporters and one freelancer were among 10 Miami journalists secretly paid by the U.S. government for appearances on the anti-Castro Radio Marti and TV Marti.

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Willie Horton Redux: Karen Hughes Breaks Her Silence

Karen HughesKaren Hughes, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, has been strangely silent this summer. The Bush confidante sworn in with much hoopla nearly a year ago to fix America's image overseas has had practically nothing to say recently about pressing issues of the day. Why? Was it a desire on her part to take a break from the demands of her job? Or did her lack of knowledge about the Middle East require her to be unheard if not unseen?

But now, upon the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Hurricane Karen, as she is known in Bush circles (or at least was until Katrina brought the President's poll numbers down), has chosen to let her views about the state of the world be better known, in a September 12 article in the national daily USA Today.

Unfortunately, Hughes's just published global tour d'horizon, reminiscent of a sanctimonious small-town sermon, reflects much that has been wrong with American public diplomacy with her at the helm. Her 928-word piece, "Where's the Outrage: A United World Must Resolutely Condemn Terror" shows Hughes — and her notions about America's place on our small planet — at their worst, for several reasons:

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