State-funded journalism loses credibility because its goals and ethics inherently conflict

Evidence

Two criteria were established by Congress for Alhurra: the television station would promote U.S. foreign policy objectives and practice professional journalism. William Youmans argues, however, that these two criteria pose an “existential dilemma”: how can professional journalism be practiced if it is tied to promoting a specific goal? Youmans shows that such a contradiction creates incongruence between American policy and rhetoric and helps explain why Alhurra’s credibility has suffered across the Middle East. Public diplomacy efforts seem by definition to come with constraints that compromise their credibility. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1262

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general literature on propaganda and credibility, e.g. Gorbachev’s glasnost-era state media, and to recent debates about NPR and BBC editorial independence from government funding.