Wednesday, September 18, 2013

September 17 Public Diplomacy Review



"America is defined by its resilience. No matter what mistakes we make, we pick ourselves up, we dust ourselves off, and come together with the courage to deny that we ever made a mistake.”

--Political satirist Stephen Colbert, cited at Bulletin News, LLC (September 17); image from

WEBSITE


Oral History Interviews - Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Image from website

VIDEO

Timi Komonibo Interviews Dr. Nancy Snow About Japanese Public Diplomacy - soundcloud.com: "Timi Komonibo interviews Dr. Nancy Snow about Japanese Public Diplomacy. Nancy Snow is a Visiting Professor and Abe Fellow at Keio University in Tokyo. She is working on a book about Japan’s image in the world since the Fukushima disaster. Her latest book is Truth is the Best Propaganda: Edward R. Murrow's Speeches in the Kennedy Years (Miniver Press)."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Syria: Has Obama Finally Forsaken the Insurgency? - Phil Greaves, globalresearch.ca: "Current events surrounding the Syrian conflict appear to be on the brink of a partial agreement toward peace. Brokered by the United States and Russia, the new quick-fire round of talks in Geneva between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov


have been promoted as a bilateral effort to disarm Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile and move forward with talks to help end the crisis (Geneva II). Yet parallel to the alleged chemical weapons attack in eastern Ghouta – which subsequently led to the diplomatic breakthrough between Washington and Moscow – a chain of events largely ignored may provide equally justifiable explanations as to why the United States chose to renege on its threats of overt military intervention, and towards public diplomacy and reconciliation." Image from

John Kerry to host Chinese counterpart on 19th September for discussing bilateral issues - post.jagran.com: "'While this meeting has been planned for some time, we do expect the Secretary and Foreign Minister to discuss current issues such as the DPRK and Syria,' US State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Marie Harf, told reporters at her daily news conference. This is a bilateral meeting and working lunch as part of US-China regular consultations on a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, she said. The Kerry-Wang meet comes in the immediate aftermath of the public diplomacy unleashed by the Secretary of State and his just concluded meetings with his Russia, French and British counterparts on the Syrian issues."

Ecuador is one of the targets of U.S. invasive military strategy - ecuadornews.blogspot.com: "After Barack Obama, U.S., took office, he planned a military strategy in which irregular warfare was one of the new intervention mechanisms. According to his precepts, the new battlefield is limitless; tactics and strategies differ from the traditional ones.


Simultaneously to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon was involved in a secret 'public diplomacy' war against Ecuador and other South American countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia and Peru." Image from entry

MSM covering for Obama's Syria disaster - Thomas Lifson, americanthinker.com: TIME Magazine ... may not be around that long. But that didn't stop it from essentially whoring itself by publishing one cover


for the rest of the world and another



for an American readership the editors obviously regard as low information voters. ... 
Update: Richard Baehr observes that the appointment of TIME magazine managing editor Rick Stengel as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs look awfully bad when juxtaposed to this shocking behavior."

Afternoon Reading List - Drey Dailey, mediabistro.com: "American copies of Time are not at all like the others: Today’s cover of Time in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific are different from the cover of the American copies.  The rest of the world must not have received the memo about the seemingly coincidental, non-political yet super-dee-duper highly important issue regarding the payment of college athletes.


Their covers are about Russian President Vladimir Putin and his dominance over Barack Obama in his handling of Syria, which was totally different from our non-judgmental, pro-education (sort of) Americanized version. Neil Munro, White House correspondent over at the Daily Caller, did more than just catch Time with their pants down in his article about the inconsistent international covers. He also calls out Time editor Rick Stengel for being one of the three journalists to be tapped to run the state department’s public diplomacy mission."  Image from entry

TIME magazine puts Putin on its cover … just not in U.S. - Howard Portnoy, libertyunyielding.com: "Diehard followers of TIME magazine (one assumes the breed still exists) know that two of its regular columnists were brutal last week in their handling of President Obama. ... What is not known to dedicated TIME readers — at least those with U.S. postal codes — is that the century-old news magazine subjected the American president to one more visit to the woodshed by affixing a likeness of his arch-nemesis, Vladimir Putin, to the cover of its current issue. ... The decision may have had less to do with the editorial staff’s guilt pangs over taking Obama to school ... than with fact that the president is the new boss of outgoing managing editor Richard Stengel. Stengel, who has been at the helm of TIME since 2006, announced last week that he was leaving that post to take a job as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs." See also

Offensive Charm: Why Vladimir Putin Tried -- and Failed -- to Woo the U.S. Public - Jeremi Suri, Foreign Affairs: "[I]f there is a long history of outside leaders intervening in U.S. foreign policy debates, there is also a long history of them doing so poorly, the latest example being Putin’s op-ed. Although it is natural that the U.S. political elites would bristle at being lectured to in public, they can rest assured that Putin, like his many foreign predecessors, is unlikely to have won over many American hearts or minds. It is no accident that such efforts to influence public opinion usually end up failing. The first instance occurred in the early years after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In 1793, the French revolutionary government appointed Edmond-Charles Genêt as its minister to the United States. ... When Washington rebuffed him, Genêt took his case to the American people through newspapers, speeches, and other efforts at what we would today call public diplomacy.


Genêt had a wide following across the eastern seaboard, and he had many sympathetic listeners. But Washington’s calls for neutrality, rather than alliance with France or Great Britain, remained more popular. ... During the decade after the Grand Alliance of World War II, Moscow’s image in the United States rapidly deteriorated. Despite repeated failures in their public diplomacy, Soviet leaders remained convinced that there existed a core of 'working-class opinion' in the United States they could turn to their advantage. In the fall of 1959, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev launched a new effort as part of a 'goodwill' tour of the United States that year that included a famous visit to the 'heartland' of American corn farming in Coon Rapids, Iowa. ... As in the case of Genêt more than 150 years earlier, Americans detected treachery and manipulation in the idealistic language of a foreign leader. ... The ongoing debate surrounding U.S. policy in Syria shows ... the importance of 'short-term trends of public opinion.' Those trends have always been defined by the words of prominent Americans, not those of foreign leaders." [Comments on Facebook: Marie Ciliberti Offensive as in attack or as in disagreeable? 5 hours ago · Like Aimee Fullman Ahem...its called Public Diplomacy. We are just as guilty. 4 hours ago · Like] Image from

US pop culture a diplomatic tool - Zhang Xiaoli, China Daily: The two-term election of Barack Obama, the first African-American US president, has been widely hailed as a popular cultural rather than a political development in the United States. The mainstream mass media in the US have made full use of this development to push their public diplomacy goals, that is, to promote the idea that the US is a land where dreams are realized through personal efforts. US pop culture a diplomatic toolObama's political success mirrors an important theme, that of American pop culture - self-made heroes' success stories, which have long replenished the American dream. Obama's success has greatly enhanced the US' image in Africa, something its official diplomacy had failed to do. This is a classic case of a personal success enhancing a country's global image because of its cultural connotations.


The case has found reflection in a US State Department report, Cultural Diplomacy: the Linchpin of Public Diplomacy. The report says that 'cultural diplomacy is the linchpin of public diplomacy, because it is through cultural activities that a nation's idea of itself is best represented'. Indeed, history is likely to record that the US' cultural riches played no smaller a role than its military might in shaping its international leadership, including the 'war on terror'. The values embedded in our artistic and intellectual traditions form the bulwark against the forces of darkness. The core idea of the design and implementation of US public diplomacy is to use cultural diplomacy, exemplified by Hollywood movies, NBA games, Disneyland characters and jazz music, as the best weapon for its success. Not surprisingly, Obama's personal success has added a 'feather' to the US' cultural cap." Image from article

Radio Farda reporters' relatives in Iran still intimidated despite new government - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Is Al Jazeera America Simply CNN, Minus Wolf Blitzer? - Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer, Foreign Policy: "The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism is out with a new report that addresses these questions through the lens of Al Jazeera's handling of its first big story: Syria. And after viewing 21 hours of cable news on Syria



across five networks, measuring coverage using five metrics, the researchers have arrived at an answer: So far, anyway, Al Jazeera America is more or less CNN -- minus Wolf Blitzer, and with a snazzier logo." Image from article; via RM on Facebook

Social media becomes weapon in Middle East propaganda battles - Lina Saigol, Financial Times: "'If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em' seems to be the Turkish government’s new approach to Twitter, which it had earlier blamed as 'the worst menace to society'. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has enlisted thousands of supporters to take to the internet, training about 6,000 people to set out the “correct” version of events, using outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Here is a look at how other governments in the Middle East are using the microblogging site both to harass activists as well as promote their own views. IRAN @HassanRouhani, 41,211 followers @JZarif, 21,336 followers The new president, moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani, has used his account to signal that he will adopt a much different approach to his hardline predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. Mohammad Javad Zarif, foreign minister, is also an active tweeter. But Mr Rouhan’s experience with Twitter has not been without problems. Earlier this month, a dispute over tweets claiming to be from the president caused confusion over who was writing the posts. One tweet from an account wished Jews a happy new year, but officials were then quoted as saying Mr Rouhani did not have a Twitter account. Twitter users in Iran were able to access the service on Monday for the first time since 2009, when the government blocked the internet after Mr Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election victory sparked massive protests. But an Iranian official later claimed a technical hitch had allowed access, denying suggestions that a ban on social media had been lifted. ISRAEL and the PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY Israeli Defence Force: @IDFSpokesperson, 221,518 followers Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades: @AlqassamBrigade 40,461 followers. An Arab-Israeli Twitter war broke out in November 2012 after the IDF tweeted a warning to Hamas commanders to lay low. The mouthpiece of Hamas’ military wing tweeted back that Israel had 'opened the gates of Hell on itself'. More recently, the Israeli government, which has been extremely adept at using social media, said it planned to offer scholarships to hundreds of students at the country’s seven universities, in exchange for their making pro-Israel tweets to foreign audiences to 'strengthen Israeli public diplomacy and make it fit the changes in the means of information consumption'. SYRIA The Syrian Arab Republic: @Presidency_Sy, 10,455 followers The Syrian Electronic Army: @Official_SEA16, 6,391 followers President Bashar al-Assad announced in July he had added Instagram to his social media sites via his Twitter account, using it to post a series of staged publicity shots designed to show normality during a conflict which has seen more than 100,000 dead. Pictures included some of Asma al-Assad, the president’s wife, helping out at a food line and hugging civilians while wearing the latest wristband pedometer. On September 10, @Presidency_Sy tweeted: 'An opposition, opposing a government by beheading, barbecuing heads and eating the hearts of your victim? Is that opposition?' The Syrian Electronic Army, a collective of anonymous hackers described as supporting Mr al-Assad, scored a coup in April when it managed to hack the Twitter account of the Associated Press and publish a false report of explosions at the White House to the news agency’s 1.9m followers.


The group, or people claiming to represent it, has also hacked the websites of several media organisations, including the New York Times and Financial Times. EGYPT Interim President Adly Mansour @Adly_Mansour, 91,957 followers @Ikhwanweb (The Muslim Brotherhood), 108,990 Egypt has been credited by some as being the first Twitter revolution, after organisers used the service to start protests in January 2011 which helped oust former president Hosni Mubarak. In July, Twitter said it would put in place a new tool to translate accounts of some prominent Egyptians into English in light of the political crisis in the country. 'As part of our experiment with tweet text translation, we’ve enabled translation for some of the most-followed accounts in Egypt, so people around the world can better understand and keep up with what’s happening there,' Twitter said. In August, some Egyptian media commentators criticised the Muslim Brotherhood for using different language in tweets to English-speaking audiences to that they used when messaging in Arabic." Image from

£3000 Visa Bond: Downing Street’s Downside Public Diplomacy - Oke Epia, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "In June of 2013, reports revealed contemplation by the United Kingdom to impose a £3000 (US $4,715.4) bond on visa applicants from some five countries; India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh.


According to the plan, this bond program and the visa applicants from the target countries will participate in a pilot scheme of a broad plan aimed at checking illegal immigration into the UK. ... However, the tide of public opinion has risen against this proposed policy. The bond idea has drawn strong opposition from governments and citizens of the targeted countries, with Nigeria for instance, threatening reciprocity if the policy is brought into effect. ... Given the wide-scale disapproval that has trailed the bond policy, the Cameron Administration may do well to avoid public diplomacy crisis by thrashing the plan." Image from

Romanian President denounces draft bill for gold and silver Rosia Montana project - balkans.com: Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Monday the draft bill giving the green light to RMGC to start mining for gold and silver in Rosia Montana is unconstitutional, as the Parliament plans to set up a special commission to debate the project. The president claims that the Rosia Montana debacle will harm Romania’s image in the eyes of foreign investors. 'We know that an unconstitutional bill has been pushed in Parliament, which can not be passed by the Constitutional Court. Based on it we generate a debate that will conclude with an unconstitutional law. How can we have a good image, when even the foreigners know our constitution?', said the president during the European Forum for Public Diplomacy. He urged the government to withdraw the bill."

China’s reputation as a global power  -  Andrew Hammond, dailytimes.com.pk: "China’s image would ... benefit from enhanced public diplomacy to win more foreign ‘hearts and minds’. At a symbolic level, example measures might include utilising the country’s growing capabilities in space travel for high-profile international cooperation projects. Surveys underline that many international publics admire China’s strength in science and technology. A broader reform needed is reducing the role of the central government, whose communications often lack legitimacy and credibility with foreign publics, in Chinese outreach efforts. Here, the country would benefit instead by expanding the role of non-state groups — including from civil society networks, Chinese diaspora communities, sporting groups, student, academic groups and business networks."

[ACUNS] Review of Geoffrey Hale’s So Near Yet So Far: The Public and Hidden Worlds of Canada-US Relations by David Borys - Kirk Goodlet, canadianmilitaryhistory.ca: "Since many


American politicians consider cross-border issues as sub-sets of American policies, public diplomacy, as Hale points out, becomes the most appropriate course of action in swaying American opinion towards policy decisions that favor Canada." Image from entry

Professor advocates for diplomatic soft power - Sarah Joh, Daily Trojan: "Naren Chitty, the founder of the Soft Power Advocacy and Research Centre at Macquarie University in Australia, visited USC on Monday to speak about the role of power and the importance of soft power in contemporary diplomacy. Before founding the research center, Chitty, who has a doctoral degree in international relations from American University, spent time as a public diplomat in Washington, D.C. and currently teaches at Macquarie University. In addition to researching soft power and public diplomacy, Chitty


also advocates the use of ethical soft power. In international relations, hard power is usually the use of military force. Soft power is distinct from hard power in that it is less concrete and stems from outside perceptions of a country’s behavior. Throughout the presentation, Chitty discussed the definition and usage of soft power and elaborated on the ethical use of soft power. Combining his own personal experiences with academic theories, Chitty addressed how the use of ethical soft power can solve social and political problems on an international level." Chitty image from

“Windokia” or “Nokrosoft”? Neither - Siyu, "Buy the Way…" Insights on Integrated Marketing Communication: "About Siyu [:] Siyu is a second year graduate student in the Master of Public Diplomacy program.


Originally from Canton (Guangzhou), China, she had worked for Reuters Beijing, National Development and Reform Commission of China and Ruder Finn Public Relations. Siyu’s interest is corporate diplomacy, which includes government and community relations of multinational corporations, especially in the global marketplace." Image from

Edwin J. Neumann, cultural attache, dies at 90 - Adam Bernstein, washingtonpost.com: "Dr. Neumann was English department chairman at the American University of Beirut before joining the State Department as a cultural attache in 1956. His assignments included Bombay (now Mumbai); Linz and Vienna, Austria; Kano, Nigeria; and West Berlin. He left the Foreign Service in 1972 and worked for the Office of Higher Education at what became the Department of Education. He helped decide on funding for grants affecting innovative programs for higher education. He retired in 1990." Via LJB

The cultural Diplomacy Project - bestessaywriters.com: "THE CULTURAL DIPLOMACY PROJECT [:] You will create a plan for a new cultural diplomacy project for the UAE: This could be an institution, an exhibition, and educational program, a film series, a fellowship program. The plan will include: 1. Mission Statement of Project, including purpose and goals 2. Key Message(s) 3. Target Market (with SWOT analysis) 4. Anticipated duration and cost of project 5. Expertise and staff needed to run the project 6. Media and Public Relations Plan (including first press release) 7. How you will assess success of project [.] This project will be due on Oct. 7, with in-class presentations in order to get feedback from classmates.


You may work on this project on your own or with someone else (if together, you will share the same grade, no matter who worked harder). The goal is to come up with a viable proposal the might actually be implemented by an organization in the UAE. instruction: 1- before you start, you have to suggest at least 3 topics and send it to me, I discuss them with the profesor [sic], then when she approve it, I will confirm to you with topic you will work on  2- ... PUBLIC DIPLOMACY refers to government-sponsored programs intended to inform or influence public opinion in other countries; its chief instruments are publications, motion pictures, cultural exchanges, radio and television. (U.S. Department of State, Dictionary of International Relations Terms, 1987)" Image from

RELATED ITEMS

Obama's bait-and-switch on Syria: The White House's emphasis on chemical weapons rather than Bashar Assad's ouster is a huge victory for the Syrian leader - Jonah Goldberg, latimes.com: The Russian deal


Obama just agreed to amounts to a huge boon to Assad in that it brings him into the so-called international community America has spent the last two years trying to kick him out of. Image from

A Very Productive Chemical-Weapons Attack: President Obama has created a U.S. interest in preserving Assad in power to oversee Syria's WMD disarmament - Douglas J. Feith, Wall Street Journal: Bashar Assad may have pulled off the most successful use of chemical weapons in history. For the two years leading up to the Aug. 21 Damascus sarin gas attack, President Obama was saying that the Syrian dictator "must go." No longer. In one month, Assad has risen from outlaw butcher to partner in disarmament. America's Syria policy today focuses not on mass murder, or on the metastasizing humanitarian and refugee crisis, or on combating the interests of Iran and its Hezbollah proxies in keeping Assad in power. Rather, with Russian President Vladimir Putin's help, U.S. policy under President Obama is concentrating on chemical-weapons disarmament.

The Price of Ignoring Mideast Reality: President Obama's plan on Syria will fail for the same reason the Oslo Accord did - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal: The Obama administration peddles the concept that a deal with Russia will lead to disarmament by Syria—as a reason to call off military strikes.But agreements are not achievements, wishes are not facts, and theory is not reality. The Obama administration has given up on exacting some tangible price on Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons, in exchange for a promise by Russia that it will intervene to remove those weapons.

Obama's Syria fiasco degrading America's global currency - Armstrong Williams, Washington Times: President Obama’s gross mishandling of the Syria situation


has dramatically weakened America’s power in the world. Image from

Obama is Bush 2.0, but it’s no upgrade - Richard Cohen, Washington Post: "Obama has so lost control of his foreign policy — if he ever had one — that he must now wait on Assad to go through with a deal the Russians, of all people, made possible. He must continue to threaten force, but the American people, Congress and, most important, the Russians will not permit it and — here’s Bush smirking — don’t believe him. In the end — and the end could be months down the road — the Syrians may well surrender their stock of chemical weapons, but Assad has literally gotten away with murder. Because of Obama’s fecklessness — abetted by a Congress that has turned darkly isolationist — the world is now a less safe place.

What Putin Doesn’t Have to Say About Syria - Masha Gessen, New York Times: The civil war in Syria will continue to rage, claiming more lives and robbing the Syrian people of hope with every passing day. Ultimately, the United States and its good-faith partners will have to admit the chemical-disarmament project has failed, as Syria lies in ruins — still ruled by Assad.

Foggy Bottom and the Fog of War - Room for Debate, New York Times: Secretary of State John Kerry, not Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, has been leading American efforts to confront the aggression of the Assad regime in Syria militarily.


What is gained or lost when the secretary of defense takes a back seat to the secretary of state in pursuing military interventions? Image from

A superpower on strike: Americans have not really turned isolationist - Economist: According to Gallup polling, most Americans now call the Iraq war a mistake. But by 51% to 44% they still think that going to war in Afghanistan was the right decision. Today’s America is not so much pacifist as fed up. But even a fed-up America is a big deal, as the world is now finding out. Via MP on Facebook

Note to the right-wing propaganda noise machine: Putin is not that into you - AzBlueMeanie, blogforarizona.com: Many on the right urged Obama to engage in saber-rattling against Syria, then complained when the president did just that. Many on the right urged Obama to take the issue to Congress, then complained when the president did that, too. Many on the right said they supported military intervention, right up until Obama agreed with them. Now Republicans seem to be complaining ... just for the sake of complaining. Putin image ffrom entry

Putin’s propaganda was an invitation for a U.S. response - Letters to the Editor, Washington Post: William C. Watts, Leonardtown: Mr. Putin’s letter was a well-crafted, carefully worded piece of propaganda making many valid points. President Obama can respond with valid points of his own.


Sue Udry, Silver Spring: Politicians and pundits who are arguing that diplomacy will work only if the threat of a U.S. attack remains credible are ignoring Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s motivations. His diplomatic push has immeasurably raised his stature on the world stage; he is demonstrating that Russia, not the United States, is the exceptional country, able to bring Syria in line and make it give up its chemical weapons without firing a shot.

Syrian children lethally injected before cameras for war propaganda videos - voiceofrussia.com: Thierry Meyssan, a French journalist and political activist, gives an account of the Syrian chemical gas attack concluding that the attack was fabricated.


In his research he cites the contradictions which appeared in the reports on the attack made by the US, Britain, and France.

The CIA, the Press and Black Propaganda - Doug Valentine, CounterPunch: Simply stated, black propaganda is one of many criminal but legally deniable things the CIA does. It often involves committing a heinous crime and blaming it on an enemy by planting false evidence, and then getting a foreign newspaper to print the CIA’s scripted version of events, which sympathetic journalists in America broadcast to the gullible public. In the case of Syria, the CIA is using cooked Israeli “intelligence” as a catalyst.

Russian doctored photo brings accusation of racism - Timothy Whiteman,Wilmington Conservative Examiner: It’s appearing that Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t the only Russian official who's enjoying poking Barack Obama in the eye. Only this time it’s with a banana and more than slightly on the racist side, as reported by left-of-center The Guardian (of London, England) on Sept. 16, 2013.


Obviously meant as an insult, former triple Olympic champion figure-skater and current Member of Parliament Irina Rodnina has posted on her personal Twitter account a photoshopped picture of The First Couple hungrily eying a banana waved in their direction. The American ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, fired back at Rodnina on Twitter with his own less-than-140-character salvo: “Outrageous behavior, which only brings shame to her parliament and country.”  A member in good standing with Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party, an angry Rodnina keystroked a second assault at the Land of the Free insisting she had done nothing wrong with her banana slap: “Freedom of speech is freedom of speech, and you should answer for your own hang-ups.” Via MC on Facebook

Protestors Accuse Al-Jazeera of Zionist-American Propaganda - Palestine News Network: The Fatah Youth movement organized a peaceful protest outside the Qatari Al Jazeera TV channel offices in Ramallah last week. The demonstration was in response to an Al Jazeera guest speaker’s verbal attack on the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, also known as Abu Ammar.

Tehran Propaganda Murals -- Harvard Collections - amirmideast.blogspot.com: A part of daily life in contemporary Iran, propaganda murals appear throughout Tehran on both public and


private buildings and contain powerful iconographic imagery.  This selection of over 130 propaganda murals photographed in the capital city during the summer of 2006 is among the first “born digital” special collections to come to the library and represents one of the first efforts to systematically document such public murals."

AMERICANA

A Lot Of People Are Very Upset That An Indian-American Woman Won The Miss America Pageant: “And the Arab wins Miss America, classic” - Ryan Broderick, BuzzFeed: When her win was announced,


Twitter immediately exploded with hateful tweets, with people calling her Arab. Image from entry

Miss South Carolina embarrasses her state with trailer joke - Jessica Chasmar, The Washington Times: South Carolina residents were outraged after the woman who represented them in Sunday’s Miss America pageant suggested that 20 percent of them live in a trailer.


“I’m from the state where 20 percent of our homes are mobile because that’s how we roll,” said Miss South CarolinaBrooke Mosteller, from Mount Pleasant. Image from article

NOT FOR STARVING ACADEMICS

"You Are Cordially Invited To The Middle East Institute's 67th Annual Banquet ... Tickets $200." Via email

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