Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 4:22 PM
Subject: WINNING THE WAR OF IDEAS WITH POP MUSIC (SURE) - ROBERT SCHADLER

WINNING THE WAR OF IDEAS WITH POP MUSIC (SURE) - ROBERT SCHADLER, FORMER CHIEF
OF STAFF, U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY, WASHINGTON (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WALL
STREET JOURNAL, JULY 1): "Your page-one article 'Propaganda: Sparking Debate,
Radio Czar Retools Government Media' (June 20) [PDPR, June 20] got nowhere near
the real crux of the controversy over Norman Pattiz's leadership in
transforming U.S. government broadcasting into pop music stations. It isn't a
matter of AM or FM frequencies, or of reforming a supposedly sclerotic
government agency, the VOA, or of his munificence to the Democratic Party. It
is about the conception of the mission of U.S. public diplomacy. Mr. Pattiz is
widely quoted as saying that 'MTV brought down the Berlin Wall' -- not
Solzhenitsyn, not John Paul II, not Vaclav Havel, not Lech Walesa, not Ronald
Reagan, not the ideas and ideals they represented. Based upon this curious
assumption, Mr. Pattiz eliminated the content from VOA's Arabic and Farsi
programming and replaced it with pop music nearly all the time. Is transforming
the war of ideas into the "battle of the bands" a winning strategy? Your
article points to the high listening rates Radio Sawa claims (and others
dispute) in countries like Morocco. But it neglects to mention that the
approval rating of the U.S. is at historic lows, with some key countries such
as Jordan and Egypt registering in single digits. There are surely other,
larger causes for this, but whether Radio Sawa is itself a source of
unfavorable views of the U.S. is more plausible than the contrary. In 1987, the
Hezbollah abductors of American journalist Charles Glass were listening to
Michael Jackson and Madonna during their depredations. Does Mr. Pattiz think
that Brittney Spears and Eminem, both staples of Radio Sawa, can succeed where
Madonna failed? We don't teach civics to American teenagers by asking them to
listen to pop music, so why we expect Arabs to learn about America or democracy
this way defies reason."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is ..... "the slightly larger version that was submitted with a good
sentence at the end that they cut out."

Best,

Bob Schadler

To the Editor:


Neil King?s story (WSJ 6/20) got nowhere near the real crux of the controversy
over Norman Pattiz?s leadership in transforming US government broadcasting into
pop music stations. It is not a matter of AM or FM frequencies, or of
reforming a supposedly sclerotic government agency, the VOA, or of his
munificence to the Democratic Party. It is about the conception of the mission
of US public diplomacy.

Mr. Pattiz is widely quoted as saying that ?MTV brought down the Berlin Wall? ?
not Solzhenitsyn, not John Paul II, not Vaclav Havel, not Lech Walesa, not
Ronald Reagan, not the ideas and ideals they represented. Based upon this
curious assumption, Pattiz eliminated the content from VOA's Arabic and Farsi
programming and replaced it with pop music (in Radio Sawa, 50 minutes of the
hour).

Is transforming the war of ideas into the "battle of the bands" a winning
strategy? Mr. King points to the high listening rates Radio Sawa claims (and
others dispute) in countries like Morocco but neglects to mention that during
the same period, the approval rating of the US is at historic lows with some
key countries such as Jordan and Egypt registering in single digits! There are
surely other, larger causes for this but whether Radio Sawa is itself a source
of unfavorable views of the U.S. is more plausible than the contrary.

No one disputes that music can help attract an audience, but can a close to
all-music format do anything more than that?

In 1987, the Hezbollah abductors of American journalist Charles Glass were
listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna during their depredations. Does
Pattiz think that Brittney Spears and Eminem, both staples of Radio Sawa, can
succeed where Madonna failed? We don't teach civics to American teenagers by
asking them to listen to pop music, so why we should expect Arabs to learn
about America or democracy this way defies reason.


Wars of ideas are won by ideas. In a war of ideas, performing a lobotomy on
your enemy might be a good move. But bragging about the expensive lobotomy you
performed on yourself is unheard of until now.

SWLer wrote:

Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 4:22 PM
Subject: WINNING THE WAR OF IDEAS WITH POP MUSIC (SURE) - ROBERT SCHADLER

WINNING THE WAR OF IDEAS WITH POP MUSIC (SURE) - ROBERT SCHADLER, FORMER CHIEF
OF STAFF, U.S. INFORMATION AGENCY, WASHINGTON (LETTER TO THE EDITOR, WALL
STREET JOURNAL, JULY 1): "Your page-one article 'Propaganda: Sparking Debate,
(snip censored version)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is ..... "the slightly larger version that was submitted with a good
sentence at the end that they cut out."

Best,

Bob Schadler

To the Editor:


Neil King?s story (WSJ 6/20) got nowhere near the real crux of the controversy
over Norman Pattiz?s leadership in transforming US government broadcasting into
pop music stations. It is not a matter of AM or FM frequencies, or of
reforming a supposedly sclerotic government agency, the VOA, or of his
munificence to the Democratic Party. It is about the conception of the mission
of US public diplomacy.

Mr. Pattiz is widely quoted as saying that ?MTV brought down the Berlin Wall? ?
not Solzhenitsyn, not John Paul II, not Vaclav Havel, not Lech Walesa, not
Ronald Reagan, not the ideas and ideals they represented. Based upon this
curious assumption, Pattiz eliminated the content from VOA's Arabic and Farsi
programming and replaced it with pop music (in Radio Sawa, 50 minutes of the
hour).

Ronald Reagan drew snickers from Americans when he described the Soviet
Union as an evil empire. Russians, however, were overjoyed that the US
President was finally telling the truth. Most Russians could not get
MTV. However, VOA-the old version-was widely listened to.

Is transforming the war of ideas into the "battle of the bands" a winning
strategy? Mr. King points to the high listening rates Radio Sawa claims (and
others dispute) in countries like Morocco but neglects to mention that during
the same period, the approval rating of the US is at historic lows with some
key countries such as Jordan and Egypt registering in single digits! There are
surely other, larger causes for this but whether Radio Sawa is itself a source
of unfavorable views of the U.S. is more plausible than the contrary.

I think that Pattiz must be the commercial radio mogul mentioned in
Passport 2005 who has taken over VOA and who is concerned more about
audience share than about information or even presenting the USA's
views.

No one disputes that music can help attract an audience, but can a close to
all-music format do anything more than that?

All the VOA suits are concerned about is audience share. It's the same
philosophy as the idea in the late 90s that "eyeballings" of a web site
was more important than profits or business model viability. The
dot.coms eventually failed, but the evidence of the failure of
Sawa/Farda may not come until it is too late.

In 1987, the Hezbollah abductors of American journalist Charles Glass were
listening to Michael Jackson and Madonna during their depredations. Does
Pattiz think that Brittney Spears and Eminem, both staples of Radio Sawa, can
succeed where Madonna failed? We don't teach civics to American teenagers by
asking them to listen to pop music, so why we should expect Arabs to learn
about America or democracy this way defies reason.

But to Pattiz all that's important is audience share. It's the same
concept that has five stations at a time in one city playing the same
turgid format that is currently hot among the marketing wunderkinds in
pursuit of the top slot on the Arbitron ratings. But success in
shortwave radio has nothing to do with ratings, something the VOA, BBC,
and DW seem to have forgotten. It's really the same concept that drove
invading Iraq-make Big Things happen, get the people there, and the rest
will take care of itself. But the devil really is in the details, and
details rarely take care of themselves.



Wars of ideas are won by ideas. In a war of ideas, performing a lobotomy on
your enemy might be a good move. But bragging about the expensive lobotomy you
performed on yourself is unheard of until now.

The US has a government of stupid people, elected by a stupid populace.
The president can barely speak English, which is his native language. He
can't seem to think, and neither can the rest of those bozos. But the
people who put them into office can't think either, thanks to the
gutting of public education. Now Norquist wants to shut the schools down
completely, and control the media completely, so that the people will
only be capable of thinking preapproved thoughts. As long as the people
are forced to let the elite do all their thinking for them, the elite
can do as they please.


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Let's have another round of Tom Lehrer's "We Are The Folk Song Army"

--

jhhaynes at earthlink dot net

"Jim Haynes" wrote in message
link.net...
Let's have another round of Tom Lehrer's "We Are The Folk Song Army"

I think "We Will All Go Together When We Go" is more befitting the current
atmosphere..

"Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" is much more fun..

TW3!

I never have liked pop music.I like the old slow real music and songs
from the early 1950's and beyond.
cuhulin

cuhu was not part of the hip listeners which brought down the Berlin
wall, was too busy surfing for Patty Page tunes on his webtv box...

Best music to me is Wagner's _Der Ring des Niebelungen_, so I'll be
prepared if ever dwarfs and dragons become a threat 8^]

You are right,Hatfield,I was not part of the hip generation.East Germany
and East Germany's economy was in shambles.The "wall" was going to come
down anyway.reagan had nothing to do with it.I saw where the cold war
monument was done away with,recently.The cold war never ended,it only
simmered down for a while.It is back on again.
cuhulin