Bush administration spent $500M to found anti-American Arab TV station

Another pet project and waste of money..

Crooks and Liars:

Yes, you read that headline correctly. For the past 5+ years, the Bush administration has been pouring millions of dollars into an arabic language TV station that is inexplicably airing anti-American and anti-semitic content, despite repeated complaints from the State Department and Congress. Can these people get anything right? Sheesh. TPM’s Andrew Tilghman has a great breakdown.

ProPublica, in a joint investigation with 60 Minutes, finds that the al-Hurra network — “the Free One” in Arabic — has completely failed in its initial mission to counter the influence of the Qatar-based al-Jazeera news network in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

For starters, there are problems with the staff, which often does not have any Arabic language skills or a background in broadcast journalism: read more…