{"id":1974,"date":"2005-03-23T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-23T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1974"},"modified":"2005-03-23T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-03-23T07:00:00","slug":"adventures_in_public_relations_part_iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/03\/adventures_in_public_relations_part_iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling the US in the Muslim world: Adventures in public relations (part III)"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/karen_hughes.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">And a free Big Mac to every viewer<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>For the past several years, the United States has had an office whose main job is to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com%2Fperm.php%3Fid%3D797_0_26_0_C\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">tell Muslims<\/a> around the world that things aren\u2019t really as they appear.  And even though two high-profile appointees \u2013 veteran ad executive <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com%2Fperm.php%3Fid%3D887_0_26_0_C\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Charlotte Beers<\/a> and former ambassador to Morocco <a href=\"http:\/\/www.commondreams.org%2Fheadlines04%2F0430-07.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Margaret Tutwiler<\/a> \u2013 spent tons of money (over $650 million was spent last year selling America\u2019s image abroad, mainly through the struggling <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com%2Fperm.php%3Fid%3D429_0_26_0_C\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Radio Sawa<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com%2Fperm.php%3Fid%3D1176_0_26_0_C\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Al-Hurra<\/a> stations), both found the task to be impossible and left the post within months.  Why?  According to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalpolicy.org%2Fempire%2Fterrorwar%2Fanalysis%2F2004%2F1129freedom.htm\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">report<\/a> by the Defense Science Board, the Muslim world would never be swayed with PR campaigns unless serious policy changes were made, especially regarding Israel and the Palestinians.  Regardless of this inconvenient fact, most of the money was spent on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opendialogue.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">feel-good<\/a> stories of Muslims living the American dream, which is good if you\u2019re trying to get more Muslims to visit the US, but not good if you\u2019re trying win \u201chearts and minds\u201d in the Muslim world.  With Bush safely back in office, however, there\u2019s a new push on this front.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Farticles%2FA25347-2005Mar10.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Karen Hughes<\/a>, the Bush advisor who was mainly responsible for Bush\u2019s rise to power, has come out of semi-retirement to apply her <a href=\"http:\/\/slate.msn.com%2Fid%2F2114854%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">spin powers<\/a> to the uncompleted task.  \u201cI\u2019m eager to <a href=\"http:\/\/msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F7182208%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">listen and to learn<\/a>,\u201d said Hughes, whose main job, according to George Bush, will be the countering of \u201chateful propaganda\u201d in the Muslim world.  But with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fwashington%2F2005-03-12-hughes_x.htm%3FPOE%3DNEWISVA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">little<\/a> foreign affairs experience, and even less with the Muslim world, Hughes faces a challenge in slipping a velvet glove on America\u2019s iron fist.  <\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both Charlotte Beers and Margaret Tutwiler tried (and largely failed) to make much of a dent in the impressions Muslims have of the US. Will Karen Hughes do any better?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Selling the US in the Muslim world: Adventures in public relations (part III)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Both Charlotte Beers and Margaret Tutwiler tried (and largely failed) to make much of a dent in the impressions Muslims have of the US. Will Karen Hughes do any better?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/03\/adventures_in_public_relations_part_iii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Selling the US in the Muslim world: Adventures in public relations (part III)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Both Charlotte Beers and Margaret Tutwiler tried (and largely failed) to make much of a dent in the impressions Muslims have of the US. 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