Those are the words of Richard Grenell, spokesman for the last four U.S. Ambassadors to the United Nations.
Not my words, but those of Richard Grenell, spokesman for the last four U.S. Ambassadors to the United Nations.
there is no better way to bring the American message of democracy and hope to 200 million Arab households than to speak directly and unfiltered to the network they are watching.
That the Bush administration went out of its way to demonise this network, perhaps even to try to destroy it - is now common knowledge.
Tariq Ayoub, Zuheir Iraqi, Tayseer Allouni and Sami Al Hajj have been the most visible faces of that policy.
But now that the myths and misinformation put about in the past have been debunked, perhaps the Obama administration will tune out the chorus from the right and listen to the advice of the huge number of people like Grenell:
Al-Jazeera has revolutionized Arab TV in the 12 years they have existed [...] ignoring the channel with the largest target audience we need to reach is a terrible mistake.
It's not just the Arab households that would appreciate a change of media policy in Washington. Tens of millions of people around the world are now relying on Al Jazeera for a more nuanced view of events in Iran, Israel, Africa, South America and Asia. They, too, want to hear President Obama directly address the issues that are important to them.
