New U.S. Public Diplomacy Under Secretary, Judith McHale

Meet the new fact of U.S. public diplomacy:

Ms. McHale and others at Discovery understood something important about communicating with people around the world: It makes more sense to engage people internationally on their own terms, in ways that respect their languages and customs, than it does just to bring them warmed-over versions of American programming. Discovery, nearly alone among American media companies that expanded internationally, put respect for cultural context and local voices at the heart of its business and creative strategies. It modified programming to respect viewers’ regional customs and translated – rather than simply subtitled — into 35 different languages.

Ms. McHale also looked for ways to bring people across the globe together around shared viewing experiences. She led Discovery to launch the highly successful “Watch With The World” specials that provided a primetime television opportunity that could be shared by people everywhere.

Ms. McHale helped forge powerful strategic partnerships, including a landmark alliance in 1998 with the BBC that enabled an innovative marriage of high-quality content and global distribution strength.

via McHale, Judith, U.S. Department of State release.

Not everyone thinks this is a great step.  Take Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy:

But the position of Under-Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs should go to someone with experience in and a vision for public diplomacy, and who will be in a position to effectively integrate public diplomacy concerns into the policy-making process. Appointing someone with no experience in public diplomacy but with a resume which “involves selling a message” has already been tried: the first post-9/11 Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Charlotte Beers, whose tenure lasted only 17 months (October 2001-March 2003), focused on “branding” America through television advertising showing happy Muslim-Americans, and is generally considered to be an utter failure.

Of course, he said that back in January.  On 17 April he clarified his statement–but didn’t back down.