Can we talk?  I'm not sure we can anymore -- at least when it comes to telling our global rivals and allies and their citizens about America.  The latest sign that our government doesn't care about telling America's story to the world is the dismal performance of taxpayer-funded Al Hurra, the Arabic-language TV channel created to help the world's 250 million Arabic speakers better understand America.

David Trachtenberg writes in the Christian Science Monitor about Voice of America's dull and often opinion-free editorials.  He says VOA and its parent organization, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, are missing an opportunity to help foreigners recognize America's nuances and appreciate our internal policy debates.  Read his opinion piece ...

The heads of America’s Arabic-language television service, Al Hurra, do not speak Arabic.  The network is in the news because it has broadcast, unedited, the speeches and interviews of extremists from Hamas and Hezbollah.  According to Helene Cooper’s report in the New York Times, one network executive “testified that network officials ...

Did you know that the folks at the Voice of America developed "Special English," a 1,500-word English language glossary designed to help familiarize non-English speakers with our language?

The New York Times has an interesting article (31 July 2006) explaining still more of the good work being done in the Executive ...