This will fix everything. Doubtless a rosy pro-American future looms in the Islamic world, courtesy of the Film Critic-In-Chief. What this ridiculous campaign will do for the freedom of speech, however, is not quite so rosy. "State Department spending $70G on Pakistan ads denouncing anti-Islam film," from the Associated Press, September 20 (thanks to Kenneth):
The American Embassy in Islamabad, in a bid to tamp down public rage over the anti-Islam film produced in the U.S., is spending $70,000 to air an ad on Pakistani television that features President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton denouncing the video.The State Department said Thursday the embassy had compiled brief clips of Obama and Clinton rejecting the contents of the movie and extolling American tolerance for all religions into a 30-second public service announcement that is running on seven Pakistani networks. Obama and Clinton's comments, which are from previous public events in Washington, are in English but subtitled in Urdu, the main Pakistani language.
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the aim was to get the messages to the widest possible audience in Pakistan, where tens of thousands of protestors angry about the film tried to reach the U.S. embassy before being turned back by Pakistani police. She said embassy staffers had decided the ads were the best way to spread the word. The seven networks have a potential audience of 90 million people, she added.
"The sense was that this particular aspect of the president and the secretary's message needed to be heard by more Pakistanis than had heard, and that this was an effective way to get that message out," Nuland told reporters in Washington. The ads are not running in other countries, she said.
In the ad, Obama is seen talking about America's tradition of religious tolerance and Clinton is seen saying that the U.S. government had nothing to do with the video that contains vulgar depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
"We absolutely reject its content and message," Clinton says in the advertisement.
A caption on the ad reads: "Paid Content" and it ends with the seal of the American Embassy in Islamabad....
They could have taken the opportunity to explain the importance of the freedom of speech. But no.
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That's embarrassing. This president must go.