Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah of the creative and sometimes lyrical
blog, “Koranteng’s Toli,” sent along a link (thanks!) to a rather wonky policy
document, African Opinion on U.S. Policies, Values and People,  presented as testimony to a U.S. House
of Representatives subcommittee last spring that mixes and matches some opinion survey data
to reveal that Africans who get most of their news from television tend not to
hate the U.S.

Seeing as how just about everyone has come to loathe ‘merica
these days (thanks George!) this is a rather surprising conclusion provided by
Cornell Asst. Prof Devra C. Moehler, who further argues that in contrast, using the Internet
or listening to the radio makes Africans less likely to feel warm and fuzzy
about the U.S.

The reason: Television tends to be state-owned in Africa
and less likely to criticize the U.S. or other Western governments. Radio is more likely to be private and hence more critical.

What’s so ironic about these findings, if true, is that U.S.
policy has long supported privatizing the continent’s media system. Be careful what you wish for, eh?