A U.S. television flop in Iraq

< < Back to Start of Article If democracy is ever going to flourish in Iraq, one element will have to be lively, independent news media, professionally operated by Iraqis and featuring a broad range of political viewpoints. While new Iraqi news outlets are proliferating, their quality and credibility are far from ideal. Meanwhile, the television station representing the American occupation authority is an embarrassment.
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Since television is something America is good at, one might have expected that at least this part of the occupation would run smoothly. So far, however, the Iraqi Media Network, run by a Pentagon contractor, has been a $5-million-a-month dud. Iraqis do not watch it, having judged its programming to be repetitive and larded with official propaganda, not exactly what you would think Iraqis were hungry for after years of state television under Saddam Hussein.
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One reason the coalition network is not creating much buzz in Baghdad is the constant and meddlesome oversight the coalition authority bureaucrats inflict on it. Another is underfinancing. Yet another is unimaginative programming, accompanied by a heavy dose of public service announcements.
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More money is now being spent on new equipment, and network officials say they will next turn their attention to developing more compelling fare. That should help, as would a little more freedom from bureaucratic interference. Occupation television is not going to be very effective at spurring Iraqi news outlets to become more professional until it starts broadcasting livelier news shows and generating some enthusiasm among Iraqi viewers. If democracy is ever going to flourish in Iraq, one element will have to be lively, independent news media, professionally operated by Iraqis and featuring a broad range of political viewpoints. While new Iraqi news outlets are proliferating, their quality and credibility are far from ideal. Meanwhile, the television station representing the American occupation authority is an embarrassment.
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Since television is something America is good at, one might have expected that at least this part of the occupation would run smoothly. So far, however, the Iraqi Media Network, run by a Pentagon contractor, has been a $5-million-a-month dud. Iraqis do not watch it, having judged its programming to be repetitive and larded with official propaganda, not exactly what you would think Iraqis were hungry for after years of state television under Saddam Hussein.
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One reason the coalition network is not creating much buzz in Baghdad is the constant and meddlesome oversight the coalition authority bureaucrats inflict on it. Another is underfinancing. Yet another is unimaginative programming, accompanied by a heavy dose of public service announcements.

http://www.iht.com/articles/105840.html

.....Iraqis do not watch it, having judged its programming to be repetitive and larded with official propaganda,.....

Gee.. they complain and they get "action"...


Sounds like they will be luckier than WE are..:(

Science Applications International Corp. is a defense contractor whose name I first became aware of on the Black Box Voting theads a couple of days ago -- they're the company that Maryland has asked to do a study of the Diebold voting machines.

It turns out they're a monster, with a finger in every pie -- full of CIA and NSA types, sometimes described as a shadow government within the Pentagon. And the Iraqi Media Network is one of their little projects.

Unable to use any of the experienced but compromised senior reporters and managers from the previous regime, the IMN has been forced to hire young, inexperienced personnel with no journalistic background. IMN officials admit they have found reporters intentionally faking interviews as well as producing stories that turned out to be based on patently false rumors. “Our news program is crap,” says one IMN official. “It is completely unprofessional.” The Iraqi managers and U.S. officials blame the defense contractor overseeing the project—SAIC, which admits that none of its managers running the national network has any media experience whatsoever.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/947668.asp


The developments surrounding Mosul TV are part of the strategy of the Iraqi Media Network, which is increasingly the subject of criticism from press freedom watchdogs such as Index on Censorship. In a hard-hitting article, Associate Editor Rohan Jayasekera says that "IMN is the child of a misguided Pentagon contract to a US defence contractor, SAIC, fathered by wartime 'Psyops' operations run by the US military." Jayasekera continues:

"Now this bumbling behemoth is going after all the functioning local broadcast media that set up across the country using old state equipment abandoned after the fall of Saddam.

"Rough but perfectly serviceable Iraqi stations are being swallowed up or chased off air by IMN, which says it merely wants to reclaim equipment that is legally theirs. Iraqi broadcasters outside the IMN loop are scathing about IMN's own broadcast record, but appear powerless to stop IMN from having its way.

"Even Iraqi stations directly supported by US military units face the chop in the name of IMN network rationalisation, angering soldiers in the field, some of whom contacted Index on Censorship to complain about the unfairness of the strategy."

http://www.rnw.nl/realradio/features/html/iraq030729.html

I thought the private contractor was FAUX.

SAIC? Isn't that the same group that:

...built the model chem/bio labs to train US troops with?
...that David Kay was/is associated with?
...that used to employ that Scientist that the FBI thinks had something to do with the Anthrax attacks?

I may be wrong but that name is appreaing a lot recently.

It freaks me out that things like this are happening in America and the idiot God Bless George Bush clones are soo fucking oblivious. This is the Evil Empire... and no one believes us. :(

Who needs clean water, electricity and food when you got Faux-News Iraq? Oh yeah, wait a minute, you need clean water and food to live, and you need electricity for the *(%&($& television! When half the city of Baghdad still doesn't have reliable electricity, what do we do? Tell them to watch TV!

:shrug:

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/onearmy.html

"If democracy is ever going to flourish in America, one element will have to be lively, independent news media, professionally operated by Americans and featuring a broad range of political viewpoints."

We are so f*cked.

:argh:
dbt

If Ken Lay can walk the streets after he has been exposed as being one of the biggest crooks in the world. If the mafia can exist in corporate America and now in the White House and be glorified in tv shows, we are truely fucked.

We thought we got rid of organized crime? It's here today on the highest level. What we have is a secret terrorist organization here in this country. The media and the Democrats have all been infiltrated by fear of death and greed for money. It's all down hill from here on out.

We are so f*cked couldn't be better said.

"repetitive and larded with official propaganda" is the whole reason why I don't watch TV anymore. I sat down last night with the clicker for the first time in maybe 2 years and was amazed at how much more it sucked than I had even remembered. And this is where most Americans get their information? Entertainment? Values? I can only imagine how much worse it is for a culture that isn't used to this level of horse crap. We've fed on it for so long over here, we call it "quality."

The Iraqi's (when they are not dodging bullets, or are not lining up for gasoline and actually have electricity) do now have some more freedom, why should they use that freedom to lap up Bush* regime propaganda? The Iraqis after all know official bullshit when they see it.

Miami Cubans are paid $26,000,000.00 US tax dollars each year to operate a TV station that Cubans on the island don't see and a radio station they are listening to less and less. Same reason - too much propaganda!

Cubans in Cuba have many radio stations, plus they can receive stations from regular Miami programming. It's time to stop the Radio/TV Marti waste, and use the $26 millions each year for the benefit of AMERICANS!!!!!

and the mafia does the rest. "Love it or leave it"

Whahahahaahahahaha........I really shouldn't laugh I think Faux come straight from there to.

Let the watch FOX!!!

<sniff sniff>