On Monday Bush blamed the Arabic media for the deteriorating image of the United States abroad.

• President Bush: “Look, I recognize we got an image issue, particularly when you got television stations, Arabic television stations that are constantly just pounding America, creating — saying America is fighting Islam, Americans can’t stand Muslims, this is a war against a religion. And we’ve got to, obviously, do a better job of reminding people that ours is not a nation that rejects religion; ours is a nation that accepts people of all faith, and that the great strength of America is the capacity for people to worship freely. It’s difficult. I mean, their propaganda machine is pretty darn intense. And so we’re constantly sending out messages, we’re constantly trying to reassure people, but we’re also — we’re also acting. And that’s what’s important for our citizens to realize.”

President Bush’s comments come just weeks after it was revealed that the U.S. has been paying the private firm the Lincoln Group to plant articles in the Iraqi press and to pay off sympathetic Iraqi journalists. And Bush’s comments didn’t mark the first time he has criticized the Arabic media. Last month the Daily Mirror of London reported President Bush considered bombing the headquarters of Al Jazeera in 2004.