Sweetheart Deal

"It took VOA more than 60 years to win universal recognition and admiration for its call signal and it has taken it just months to assume several new and ridiculous identities," writes columnist Khalid Hasan in the Daily Times of Pakistan. The increasing emphasis on pop music programming in search of a young demographic, he continues, suggests that VOA is only interested in listeners 16-39. "Some jokers have sold its governors the utterly ridiculous idea — insofar as the Islamic world goes — that the way to a potential suicide bomber’s heart is through pop music, interspersed with snappy sound bites packaged as news and information."

Mr. Hasan also raises some very interesting questions on the undisclosed financial arrangements between the U.S. government and foreign broadcasters who carry programs like Radio Sawa in Arabic, Radio Farda in Farsi and the new Radio Aap ki Dunya, which is targeted at Pakistani listeners.