I may be wrong, but I suspect you're underestimating the intelligence of
those foreign officials. No slight to you or anything, but I suspect that
most of them are quite a bit more sophisticated than we might suspect.
Especially the higher level leaders as some of them have probably been to
the US at some point or another. So they probably understand the concept of
non state owned enterprises. But the big thing is that they don't endorse
freedom because it is a threat to their monopoly on power.

I do agree though that the US is unique in that you can pretty much host
your own show as long as you can foot the bill. That's rare when you
consider that in a lot of nations, the broadcasting corporations are state
owned and only in a number of Western nations are there alternative
broadcasts.


"running dogg" wrote in message
. ..
wrote:

Bro. Stair's going to CRI? Like Dr. Gene Scott was renting
transmitters from Voice of Russia for a while? That would be
interesting. Stair, et al, are already a sort of alternative Voice of
America, telling them that we are insane fundies!

Hudley Pearse


I've always been worried about unintended audiences (ie foreigners)
listening to US kook broadcasts and mistakenly thinking that the kooks
are somehow endorsed by the US govt or even worse that they are official
US govt broadcasts. Someday, some US politician is going to be told by
an important official in a vital part of the world that the US govt
endorses some extreme stand against said part of the world expressed by
US kook broadcasters (like preachers saying that Islam is an evil
religion). Why? Because it's on a radio station licensed by the US govt,
of course.

The US is virtually unique in the world in that the central govt does
NOT control all broadcast media tightly and does NOT have an official
state broadcaster. Anybody can say practically whatever they want on a
govt licensed broadcast station within a few broad limits, if they're
willing to pay for it. In most of the rest of the world, including
Europe, that is simply inconcievable. I don't expect officials in say
Iran or China to understand the fine differences between US govt
licensing of a station and paid programming by non-govt entities on said
station. That difference could cost the US dearly in the future, not
just with leaders but with public opinion in places that are already
predisposed to view the US unfavorably.