Report: Iraqi Insurgents Winning Public Relations War

In the war for the hearts and minds of Iraqis, media-savvy insurgents seem to be doing a very good job of getting their message out.

Reporting for All Things Considered, Michele Keleman looked at a recent report from the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on how Sunni insurgents use media, particularly the Internet.

The Washington Post reported last month on one of the insurgent productions, a "Top 20" compilation video of attacks on U.S. forces that is designed to create a "healthy rivalry" between insurgent groups. Daniel Kimmage, one of the report's authors, described it as "fast-paced and clearly aimed at the video game generation."

But Kimmage and co-author Kathleen Ridolfo also saw something else in their study of insurgent media. The RFE/RL Web site reports:

Kimmage and Ridolfo argue that the loss of coordination and message control that results from decentralization has revealed fundamental disagreements about Iraq's present and future between nationalist and global jihadist groups in Iraq and that these disagreements are ripe for exploitation by those interested in a liberal and democratic Iraq.

The Bush administration has already spent millions on Arabic-language broadcasting to try to get its message across, including on satellite channel Al-Hurra, but it has consistently failed to gain large audiences in the Arab world. One of the problems was demonstrated recently in disagreements in Washington about Al-Hurra's programming. As long as politicians continue to argue over these sorts of questions, it's unlikely that the U.S. will be able to take the upper hand in the media war.

9:35 AM ET | 07-13-2007 | permalink