Wave Maker

The Monday morning Boston Globe is usually so bland. But today, there was plenty of good red meat to savor:

Hampton Stevens, former managing editor of Inside the Airforce, argues in Uncle Sam's Blog that "US policy makers should recognize blogging as a perfect tool to promote the proliferation of independent democratic voices:"

"Michael Waller, professor of international communication at The Institute of World Politics, says, 'While some in the State Department recognize the power of the Internet for public diplomacy, they are years behind the technology and show little sign of advancing soon.' He proposes that the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs US-sponsored broadcasting, 'quickly integrate its radio and TV programming with Internet media to facilitate global, interactive networks of independent bloggers in English, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and other languages, united against Islamist extremism....' "

"The advantage of a public diplomacy that seeks to build indigenous communities of reform-minded bloggers is that no American bureaucrat needs to develop the correct tone for communicating American ideals. Instead, the message of liberty and democracy can be encouraged to spread from the very communities that public diplomacy campaigns are designed to reach in the first place."

How exciting! No more dropping clumsily-translated leaflets from airplanes, and Bill Gates can sell a few million laptops through USIA.