U.S. mends frosty relations with Al Jazeera

[sufrommich]

The Obama administration is making an effort to ease tensions, getting its officials on the network, which has an audience of about 60 million and is seen as widely influential in the Middle East.
Reporting from Washington —

The Obama administration is courting the pan-Arab television network Al Jazeera in an attempt to improve a history of testy relations with one of the most influential news outlets in the Middle East.

The new policy of engagement has been apparent in recent weeks as a State Department media outreach office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has sought to place Arabic-speaking diplomats on Al Jazeera to lay out Washington's talking points about the protests roiling the region.

Al Jazeera is crucial because so many households in the Middle East turn to it in times of turmoil, said Dana Shell Smith, deputy assistant secretary for international media engagement, an office created last summer to reach out to such outlets.

"If we are not in the conversation, people will be speaking for us or about us," said Shell Smith, who speaks Arabic. "We need to make sure we are out there speaking for ourselves."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-al-jazeera-20110207,0,7680421.story

[Warpy]

1. Well, duh

It's the first thing any incoming Republican administration will overturn since they're determined to be wrong about everything, but it's a step in the right direction for now.