Hopes High For Foreign Aid in Obama Presidency (NPR, December 2, 2008 )
Summary: NPR correspondent, Michele Kelemen, puts together this story with the help of congresswoman Betty McCollum, AEI Scholar Nicholas Eberstadt and President/CEO of InterAction, Sam Worthington, who all voice their opinions and discuss their ideas concerning the best way to go about reforming the current foreign aid policy.
Category: Mainstream Journalistic
What Is It? Audio NPR discussion
Title: Hopes High For Foreign Aid In Obama Presidency
Publication Information: NPR.org; December 2, 2008
Author: Michele Kelemen
Location: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97646244
Accessed: January 26, 2009
Support:
• Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN), member of the subcommittee on the State Department and Foreign Operations for the House Appropriations Committee
• InterAction, an umbrella group of U.S. charities
• “most experts”
• Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute
• Sam Worthington, president of InterAction
• President Kennedy, U.S. president who first drafted the Foreign Assistance Act
These sources are examples of those who are in favor of reforming and allocating more funds towards Foreign Aid policy and each brings a different idea as to how to go about doing so. Also cited as an historical reference is a former president who first breached the subject of a foreign aid policy and attempted to put it into action.
Source Analysis: NPR, or National Public Radio, is a critically acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. They are a non-profit, privately funded, member organization. NPR reaches an audience of about 26 million, nationwide thanks to 860 noncommercial, independently operated public radio stations that broadcast a combination of local and national programming. NPR.org provides hourly news updates, special features, and ten years of archived programming.
Usefulness: This source introduced one aspect of debate about expanding U.S. diplomacy, and that is, how to go about doing so and how to go about reforming the policy that is already in place in the most effective manner. Two differing views on the subject were presented; one leaning towards employing a Cabinet-level official devoted to making the necessary changes, while the other thinks that won’t be enough. Eberstadt would rather jump straight into re-writing legislation that governs foreign assistance rather than jumping through so many bureaucratic hoops. This story makes the argument that convincing people that there’s something wrong with the current foreign aid policy isn’t the issue as “most people” already agree on that topic. Rather, the more pressing issue is deciding how to go about fixing what’s wrong with it. By addressing this issue in this manner, they’re leaving out those who don’t support expanding the U.S.’s diplomatic presence and their views. It ends on a hopeful note, saying that foreign development assistance seems to be a high priority with this administration.
Works Cited:
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