Fears over crumbling public
support for the coalition have prompted the Bush administration to launch a
new propaganda offensive.
The US
president has appointed a top advertising executive, Charlotte Beers, as the
new Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy.
The move comes less than two weeks after the announcement that a
media centre is to be set up in Islamabad.
Ms Beers' job will be to coordinate the contact between the
government and the media.
Many see her appointment as a sign that the administration is
dissatisfied with the way the conflict has been covered.
"Certainly in the Arab world and in the Muslim world,
there's a feeling here in Washington
that the US
did not get its message out promptly or effectively," Washington Post
assistant editor and chief foreign correspondent Jim Hoagland said in an
interview.
But he believes hiring a high profile advertising executive is
not the answer.
"The idea that putting out Madison Avenue techniques is
going to solve the problem is going to be something that the astute American
public is going to see through pretty quickly," he said.
Charlotte Beers has been dubbed "the most famous woman in
advertising" and was chairman of J Walter Thompson until her contract
expired last month.
She will report to Colin Powell as one of just six
undersecretaries of state.
Ms Beers has worked with Mr Powell before. She and her new boss
served together on the board of Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.
Media centre
Ms Beers' appointment marks the coalition's second propaganda
offensive this month.
On 1 November, the US
and Britain
announced that a "Coalition Information Centre" is to be set up in Islamabad.
Similar centres will open in London
and Washington
to counter what the prime minister's official spokesman refers to as
"untruths and lies".
The UK
and US are believed to fear that time differences are giving the Taleban a
public relations head start, so that their version of the night's events
dominates the Pakistani news agenda. Islamabad
is five hours ahead of London
and 10 hours ahead of New
York.
But a London-based Arabic paper describes the coalition's
strategy as "dangerous".
"The intervention by the US
and British governments in the media services and dissemination of
information to people endangers the future of political and civil
freedoms," said an article in Al-Hayat published on Saturday, "not
only in the United
States and Britain,
but also in all the countries in the world.
"This step will... encourage undemocratic regimes to
continue to control the press and media and justify for these regimes the
continued existence of information ministries and political propaganda
mouthpieces."