Double Wanker
Aug 25th, 2007 at 6:44 pm by Susie
I just wrote this piece for Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish.
The zinger — about which I’m withholding judgment but which I think should be in the public domain — is that I have just learned that “A War We Might Just Win” co-author Mike O’Hanlon is under contract with America’s Middle East propaganda network, Alhurra.
O’Hanlon’s public bio does say that he is a commentator for Alhurra — so nothing is hidden. But “under contract” and helping to produce shows, as I’m told he is helping to do, seems to be a broader form of engagement in America’s propaganda efforts, which aren’t going that well in any case.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but in light of Operation Mockingbird, I suspect many more of our well-known talking heads are paid to support the war.
UPDATE: There’s a rebuttal over at Kevin Drum’s place.
While I’m no fan of al-Hurra (mainly through reading Abu Aardvark’s critiques of it), you can’t dismiss it entirely as propaganda.
The page you link to describes it as “dedicated to presenting accurate, balanced and comprehensive news”. Obviously it’s fallen short of that ideal to some extent, but it isn’t plain propaganda to the extent that pundits should be ashamed of working there.