Sunday, February 11, 2018

US government-funded TV spreads FETÖ propaganda


yenisafak.com


Al Hurra was founded by former US President George Bush in 2004 to tone down anti-American sentiment in Middle East

A U.S. government-funded TV channel has given leading fugitive members of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) a chance to vilify Turkey.
Virginia-based al-Hurra News, an Arabic-language satellite TV channel, which broadcasts to 25 countries in the Middle East and North Africa featured key FETÖ fugitives Emre Uslu and Adem Yavuz Arslan on screen.
The TV channel, which has long been criticized for being a propaganda tool of the U.S. government in the Middle East, also shared a video of the interview on its Twitter account.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
FETO and its leader, Gulen are also suspected of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the Turkish state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
The terror group has a considerable presence outside Turkey, including private educational institutions that investigators have found serve as a revenue stream for the terror group.
Al-Hurra was established as an alternative to Middle-Eastern broadcasts, often critical of the U.S., by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2004. It also attempted to tone down Arab anger after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The channel, which operates under the control of Broadcasting Board of Governors (global media agency of the U.S. government), eventually came under fire by American politicians for not reaching the targeted number of viewers despite its large budget.
Receiving over $100 million annually from American taxpayers, al-Hurra has became "the most expensive foreign broadcasting effort undertaken by the U.S. government", according to the ProPublica, a nonprofit organization that produces investigative journalism in the U.S.
According to Congressional records, al-Hurra received $108 million while its state television channel Voice of America received $221 million in fiscal year 2017.
The channel dismissed its own top executive and employees who broadcast a live speech by Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, and a Holocaust deniers' conference in Iran.
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Facebook comment by Ambassador Alberto Fernandez (2/11/2018):
Alberto Fernandez
6 hrs ·
So that Turkish wire service story attacking Al-Hurra was picked up yesterday by the Turkish daily "Yeni Safak." Quite an honor to be singled out by this notorious publication (which is very close to the ruling AKP of President Erdogan) with its tradition of anti-American, anti-semitic, xenophobic and Islamist and chauvinistic utterances! So far since I took over at MBN we have been attacked by pro-Hizbollah media in Lebanon, in an orchestrated Egyptian media campaign (still don't get the reason for that one completely) and by Erdogan's media outlets (and it has only been about 7 months into my tenure!).

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