U.S. LOSES HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE IN ITS JOUSTS WITH AHMADINEJAD - ERIC TRAGER
(PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, SEPTEMBER 25): Give Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad credit: He understands the American public far better than our
leaders understand the Islamic publics to which he is appealing. Therein lies
his true danger. Ahmadinejad's coup at Columbia University, where he gave a
talk, is worth emulating. In attempting to reach out to American students,
Ahmadinejad has done what American diplomats have failed to do on campuses
throughout the Middle East. For American public diplomacy, the results have been
disastrous, as these campuses -- always catalysts for the political movements
shaping the region -- have become unchecked hotbeds of anti-American sentiment.
With each small victory in public diplomacy, Ahmadinejad's stature grows
throughout the Middle East. Undermining Ahmadinejad's regional appeal thus
requires confronting his orthodoxies head-on, countering each demand with a
challenge that either forces his concession or, more likely, compels his
retreat. To do this effectively, Americans need to face Ahmadinejad with greater
moral confidence.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/200...hmadinejad.html
Reflections from news and commentary of the day
RAN'S FRIENDLY AUDIENCE - JOSEPH KLEIN (FRONTPAGEMAGAZINE.COM, SEPTEMBER
ReplyDelete26): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?s speech before the United Nations
General Assembly this week is all part of a sophisticated propaganda campaign to
counter American and European pressure for stronger Security Council sanctions
against Iran and to build support in the General Assembly for Iran?s campaign to
win a Security Council seat of its own.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read....C9-D80F4FDF8A22
WHO'S AFRAID OF MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD?: AFTER ALL THE TREMBLING, THE IRANIAN
PRESIDENT GOT A BRUISING INSTEAD OF A BOOST - JESSE WALKER (REASON, SEPTEMBER
25): When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University
yesterday, he did not emerge with the "propaganda victory" that neocon pundit
Bill Kristol assured us he would receive. Sadly, however, Iran?s president did
win a propaganda victory throughout much of the world outside the USA.
http://reason.com/news/show/122656.html
KRISTOL ARTICLE AT
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...14/131yhgvn.asp
SEE ALSO
http://oncenter.blogspot.com/2007/09/propaganda.html
PROPAGANDA COUP - DANIEL LARISON (EUNOMIA, SEPTEMBER 25): Preliminary
reactions from abroad suggest that, far from appearing ridiculous and laughable,
as an American audience naturally takes him to be, Ahmadinejad is winning
plaudits for his performance in more than a few corners at home (at least in the
Iranian establishment) and getting credit for enduring Bollinger?s supposedly
?harsh? introduction.
http://larison.org/2007/09/25/propaganda-coup/
MY TAKE ON AHMADINEJAD DEE (ASTUTE BLOGGERS, SEPTEMBER 26): Columbia
University does not allow the ROTC on their campus, they have denied the
Minutemen the right to speak and yet it is okay for a terrorist-sponsoring
dictator to come and speak. It sounds like your average, insane, socialist
utopia, liberal campus. Iranian students at Columbia are upset over this because
they know how this will be portrayed and used for propaganda purposes over in
Iran.
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2007/09/...hmadinejad.html
PROPAGANDA 101: IRAN 1, USA/COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 0 PROTEIN WISDOM
(SEPTEMBER 25)
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=9878
PROPAGANDA 'DIRTY BOMB' EXPLODES IN NEW YORK (BOB MCCARTHY WRITES,
SEPTEMBER 25): Amidst the commotion surrounding Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia University yesterday, few people realize
the diminutive dictator's visit had a propaganda impact similar to that of a
so-called 'dirty bomb.' A dirty bomb, according to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, is one type of a radiological dispersal device (RDD) that combines a
conventional explosive, such as dynamite, with radioactive material.
http://bobmccarty.wordpress.com/2007/09/25...es-in-new-york/
PROPAGANDA COUP - ALAN W. DOWD (FRONTPAGEMAGAZINE.COM, SEPTEMBER 25): It has
been a very successful trip for Ahmadinejad. And by that measure, it?s hard to
see how giving him a platform was the right thing to do.
http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read...98-53634CD5EB5F
PROPAGANDA SHOW AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY- FERN SIDMAN (INTELLECTUAL
CONSERVATIVE, SEPTEMBER 25): The hallowed halls of New York City's premiere Ivy
League institution of higher learning, Columbia University, will never be the
same for this week the world's leading despot graced its presence.
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/20...bia-university/
PROPAGANDA BATTLE LOST - (BALDILOCKS: BLOWING FUSES AND GOING OFF ON BIZARRE
TEARS FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE, SEPTEMBER 25): In spite of Columbia President
Lee Bollinger?s excellent preamble to Monday's Columbia speech/Q&A by Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, it seems that Islamist Propaganda was the victor yesterday.
http://www.luoamerican.com/baldilocks/2007...ite-of-col.html
LUNATIC'S SOAPBOX: HARD TO SEPARATE SPEECH, PROPAGANDA EDITORIAL
(NEWSOK.COM, SEPTEMBER 25): We're all for free speech, but at some point
Ahmadinejad's facilitators can become complicit in propaganda, no matter how
earnestly they try to get him to answer tough questions -- as Columbia President
Lee Bollinger did commendably Monday.
http://newsok.com/article/3133335/?print=1
AHMADINEJAD'S SOUVENIR CONSERVACHICK (SEPTEMBER 25): The lack of manners
on display by Columbia President Bollinger in his opening remarks [introducing
Ahmadinejad] was startling not only to his guest speaker but to me. Not only has
he performed a service for the Iranian propaganda machine but he's made
Americans look like uncivil, graceless buffoons.
http://theconservachick.blogspot.com/2007/...s-souvenir.html
AHMADINEJAD V. BOLLINGER: WORDS WERE SPOKEN, BUT WHAT WAS SAID? - RU S.
FREEMAN (COMMON DREAMS, SEPTEMBER 25): Columbia University?s president, Lee C.
Bollinger, chose to ask a visiting foreign dignitary to grace his campus with
his presence. A guest who accepts such an invitation does not envision that they
will be publicly humiliated and attacked by their host for the amusement of
other attendees.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/24/4094/
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, PRESIDENT BOLLINGER, AHMADINEJAD - VAL'S BIEN
(SEPTEMBER 25): The Left have given Ahmadinejad his platform to promote his
propaganda. They gave him a world stage to spew his evil.
http://valsbien.blogspot.com/2007/09/colum...-bollinger.html
IRAN'S PROPAGANDA VICTORY AND THE STUPIDITY OF COLUMBIA U. (FLAGGMAN?S
CANADA, SEPTEMBER 25)
http://flaggman.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/a...ad-at-columbia/
AHMADINEJAD DOES NEW YORK - PIERRE TRISTAM (CANDIDE'S NOTEBOOKS, SEPTEMBER
25/COMMON DREAMS): The guy had the guts to submit to open questions from a
hostile university and New York audience. When's the last time George W. Bush
had that courage? Bush never goes within a mile of an audience that hasn?t been
filtered, interrogated, pre-screened and pre-judged by his goons. Yet here was
Ahmadinejad knowingly entering the maw of the dragon, as far as he was
concerned, and taking questions.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/24/4082/
PROPAGANDA VICTORY? - (PRIBEK, SEPTEMBER 25): 'The Daily Mail has this
headline; 'Propaganda victory for Iran's President Ahmadinejad in New York'. A
lot of our own pundits are saying similar things. Sitting here in fly over
country, it's hard for me to see it that way. I have a hard time seeing that we
got snowed by this guy and that he had a 'propaganda victory'. Just because he
is afforded an opportunity to spout his propaganda doesn't mean that it is
effective. That's what we do here; we let people spout, say anything.'
http://pribek.net/2007/09/25/propaganda-victory/
MR. AHMADINEJAD SPEAKS EDITORIAL (NEW YORK TIMES, SEPTEMBER 25): We hope
cooler heads prevail once Mr. Ahmadinejad leaves town. And we hope that what
Americans and Iranians will remember is that image of professors and students,
in a true democratic forum, challenging the Iranian president for his Holocaust
denial, his threats against Israel and the repression of Iran?s citizens.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/opinion/...agewanted=print