I'd like to pass along Kim Andrew Elliott's comments (http://kimelli.nfshost.com) about Rep. Mark Kirk's call for an investigation of VOA quotes from Taliban officials. Kim has succinctly defined VOA's role:
"Broadcasts that provide only the non-Taliban side of the story would not be "counter-programming." They would just be more propaganda. Real counter-programming is accurate, reliable, balanced news, which must necessarily include coverage of what opponents are doing and saying. If decision makers want to use broadcast media to transmit one-sided broadcasts into Afghanistan and Pakistan, they can do so. They can be public diplomacy under State, or information operations under Defense, as long as they are not part of or confused with US international broadcasting under the Broadcasting Board of Governors. While Taliban one-sided broadcasting might appeal to local prejudices and ideologies, US one-sided broadcasting would not (unless it is an uncommonly clever "black" clandestine operation). The latter would therefore probably not have much of an audience.
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