Interesting post via Rebecca M, on the efficacy of shipping Jordanian journalists back to the US on the State Department’s dime. The post is headlined Are the Americans bribing Arab journalists? which gives you some idea of how the author views American hospitality.

Being the guest of a government whose policies you find offensive is surely no less demanding than being a citizen of state whose policies you find offensive? Given the criticism it engenders it’s hard to see how State Department junkets for Arab journalists could be viewed as bribery. Pointless, or a waste of money, perhaps? But then it’s easier to criticize your host than a non-democratic government…and I don’t make that point lightly – Middle Eastern journalists face consequences far graver than dismissal for their everyday reporting.