There was an article "10 Questions for Karen Hughes", she is the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, and one Q&A got stuck in my head.
From Time, February 20, 2006
Q:Any surprises during your Middle Eastern listening tour last year?
A: When I was in Saudi Arabia, women there kept saying, "You media said this, your media sad that," and I finally realized they were talking about an Oprah Winfrey show about domestic violence in Saudi Arabia. Because they don't understand the independence of our media, they thought I put Oprah up to that.
If they cannot grasp the simple idea of the freedoms of this country and how the media works within it, it is no wonder we aren't getting anywhere with understanding each other. That they would think that Oprah was a mouthpiece for the government really makes me wonder what the hell they are being told about this country and what could they think. G-d help us if they’ve seen Jerry Springer or Cops.
I can believe that they could think our media is controlled, or at least influenced, by our government because, I assume, they know that theirs is. But that would lead to the question of why would they believe anything that comes out of either side? Perhaps that is the problem, they know their government lies to them and just assume that ours lies also. The only difference seems to be is as American’s get feed up with their news sources, they find or create new ones. The rest of the world just gets mad at America.
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