Two examples of public
relations failures
by
John David Powell
Two unconnected events this week left no doubt of
the failure of the people of the United States to hold our own in the
arena of international public relations – in other words, the winning of
hearts and minds in the Muslim world. Those in the Muslim world, at least
the ones with access to some form of medium, must have watched in amazed
amusement and disgust at the civil-rights field trips to Jena, La., and at
the over-the-top protestations against the speech by Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a private university.
“You want us to be like you, the Land of the
Free,” they must have said. “Yet you falsely imprison your black children
and you try to muzzle the freely elected leader of a great and ancient
nation.”
Indeed.
We in this country, at least those of us with
access to some form of medium, can explore the backstory to these
front-page events, and then decide for ourselves what to believe and how
to respond. Others around the world, particularly folks in the Middle
East, see the same pictures but hear a different narration. They do not
have the opportunity to decide what to believe or how to respond.
The New York Times ran a story in October 2001
with the prophetic headline: “U.S. appears to be losing public relations
war so far.” The inability of the Bush administration to convince doubters
at the time that the war in Afghanistan was justified and that U.S. Middle
East policy is evenhanded was the gist of the story. A Western diplomat
pointed out that talking heads cannot compete with the powerful images of
wounded Afghan children and Israeli tanks rolling into Palestinian
villages.
The war on terror, the story explained, has an
image problem outside of these United States, in part because no sense of
immediacy exists in those countries, not like here. Stories of anthrax
attacks and the hunt for Osama bin Laden led our newscasts, while Middle
Eastern news outlets repeatedly aired images of bombed-out buildings and
the funerals of children and grandparents. Images provided by Western news
agencies.
The message they receive, not necessarily the
message we send, is that our righteous indignation over the death of
innocent civilians does not extend beyond our borders, and particularly
does not apply to Muslims.
And so it is with Jena and Mahmoud.
While we condemn the treatment of Muslim women
and abhor the violence between members of different Islamic sects, the
Muslim world sees images of massive protests in a small Louisiana town
described by some as the example of the rampant racism that plagues our
nation.
Middle Eastern media do not explain that
well-intentioned souls and publicity-addicted agitators may have
overplayed a debatably racial situation. In fact, not until the buses
unloaded their well-meaning passengers hoping to relive the heady days of
Selma and Birmingham did the mainstream media report the backstory of this
sordid affair: white youths sent to an alternative school for almost a
month and given in-school suspension for two weeks, instead of the minor
three-day suspensions as earlier reported; an all-white jury that resulted
from African-Americans refusing to report for jury duty and not from the
machinations of a racist judicial system; nooses hung from an old shade
tree that was not the exclusive shelter for white students as frequently
described; and black students playing with the nooses instead of running
from them in fear and trepidation.
Then there was the brilliantly played
public-relations hand of Ahmadinejad. U.S. media told their audiences that
the president of Columbia University invited the Iranian president to
speak during his visit to the United States in a move that appeared to be
an ill-conceived attempt to capitalize on the moment. The reality,
however, as described after the fact by Newsweek magazine, is that
Ahmadinejad was invited to speak last year by a former Columbia dean.
Security concerns prevented that appearance.
A few weeks ago, according to Newsweek, the new
Iranian ambassador to the United Nations asked if Columbia still wanted
Ahmadinejad to speak, under certain ground rules.
These things do not happen overnight, especially
at a university. The accusatorial and, as some would say, rude
introduction of Ahmadinejad by Columbia president Lee Bollinger was worked
out in advance, according to Newsweek. Nothing was left to chance by
Ahmadinejad and the Iranians, who used our righteous indignation against
us by making Ahmadinejad appear to the folks back home as the innocent
victim of another American outrage.
“How dare you invite someone to your house, then
insult him and the people he represents,” they said.
Indeed, the chancellors of six Iranian
universities and academic centers sent a protest letter to Bollinger. The
first of the ten questions they asked was why did the university and the
U.S. media violate Ahmadinejad’s freedom of expression, a right guaranteed
by the First Amendment of our Constitution. We, in this country, know
Ahmadinejad received more than his share of face time with the American
public, but the folks back home saw only the poorly conceived attempts to
restrict his message to the American people.
It
boggles the mind that a nation that can sell millions of disposable
diapers and bright, shiny diamonds, which do not contribute to the
advancement of civilization or to peace in any region of the world, cannot
sell the simple concept of a friendly and helpful Uncle Sam.
Mundus vult decipi
John David Powell is an award-winning writer, university lecturer,
and contributor to the Christian History Project. His email address is
johndavidpowell@yahoo.com.
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