Let us face facts, America's waning popularity and negative image around the world is a problem.
Most of the talking heads on television will point fingers at the US and blame us for our perceptions.
However, are there more sinister forces at work shaping the information environment? Richard Eisendorf, Senior Program Manager for the Middle East and North Africa at Freedom House testified before the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, House Committee on Foreign Affairs Jan 2008 with the following facts :

• In the country of Syria, the government blocks any websites that are critical of Syrian policies or that offer any type of support to opposition groups.
  
• Iran blocks nearly 12,000 websites in a year on top of the multitude of bloggers that it tries to censor.
  Sites that have been blocked include The New York Times website, and the English version of Wikipedia.
  

• The government owned ISP Batelco in Bahrain restricts surfers from accessing any sites that it deems as anti-government and anti-Islamic and human rights websites.
  
• This same form of censorship rears it's head in Oman where the government-owned Omantel filters and spies on their internet users.
  A typical list of prohibited online topics, including deragotory remarks about the royal family.
  
• The government controlled ISP in Qatar uses the technique of using proxy servers which can be manip[ulated to block any material deemed detrimental to the "religious, cultural, political, and moral values of the country.
  "

• The kingdom of Saudi Arabia have over 40 privately owned ISPs, however all of them access the web through a government run server server through a gateway run by a government institution called KingAbdul-AzizCity for Science and Technology.
  This allows the government to tightly block and filter unwanted websites despite the apparent diversity of providers.
  

This news should come as no surprise when coupled with the fact of how children are educated in some of these countries.
Here is the way the West is portrayed in schoolbooks in Iran:

• "The Muslims of the world, together with the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, should resolve to shatter America's teeth in its mouth to pieces...
  " Imam Khomeini, Islamic Viewpoint, Grade 11 (2004) p.
  28

Or how do our good friends the Saudis educate their children about us?

• Write down the appropriate interpretation for the following words: America...
  Persian, Grade 7 (2004) p.
  31 Answers to the exercises at the end of Chapter 1: America - the Great Satan.
  Persian - Teacher's Guide, Grade 7 (2003) p.
  76
• As far as the protection of their interests in the Persian Gulf was concerned the danger for the Americans was the...
  possibility that unrest and revolution would emerge in the states of this region.
  Because, if an anti-American movement were to emerge in one of these countries, it might possibly also stir up the entire region and, furthermore, with the overthrow of the governments dependent on America, take away all the Great Satan's benefits.
  History, Grade 8 (2004)
• The all-out attack of the Western countries, with America at their head, against our Muslim society and their violent confrontation with the Islamic movements in the Muslim countries (Algeria, etc.
  ) and the free hand given to the Serbs to massacre the Muslims of Bosnia...
  Sociology [Humanities], Grade 11 (2004)
• "The students should have a heart overflowing with hatred towards Arrogance (America)" ..
  ...
  Defense Readiness 1 - Teacher's Guide, High School Grades (2002)

• Britain and the United States worked for the establishment of the Zionist entity and for its support, so that it would become a supporting base for Imperialist and Zionist interests at the heart of the Muslim world.
  - Geography of the Muslim World, Grade 8, (1994)
• The Destructive Movements Used by Zionism for the Realization of Its Goals - 1.
  Freemasonry.
  This is a secret Jewish organization working covertly for the realization of the Jews' greatest interests.
  Freemasonry is a deceptive word which deludes the hearers to believe that it is a noble vocation, for its meaning is 'the free builders'.
  Its motto is 'liberty, fraternity, equality'.
  2.
  B'nai B'rith, i.
  e.
  , 'Sons of the Covenant'.
  This association was established in 1834 in America.
  3.
  World Lyons Clubs.
  The meaning of Lyons is 'lions'.
  They are Masonic clubs the center of which is in America and they have secret agents in all parts of the world.
  4.
  The Rotary Clubs.
  They were established in 1905 in Chicago in America and later spread to all parts of the world.
  - Hadith and Islamic Culture, Grade 10, (2001)
• There is no doubt that the Muslims' power irritates the infidels and spreads envy in the hearts of the enemies of Islam - Christians, Jews and others - so they plot against them, gather [their] force against them, harass them and seize every opportunity in order to eliminate the Muslims.
  Examples of this enmity are innumerable, beginning with the plot of the Jews against the Messenger and the Muslims at the first appearance of the light of Islam and ending with what is happening to Muslims today - a malicious Crusader-Jewish alliance striving to eliminate Islam from all the continents.
  Those massacres that were directed against the Muslim people of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Muslims of Burma and the Philippines, and in Africa, are the greatest proof of the malice and hatred harbored by the enemies of Islam to this religion.
  - Geography of the Muslim World, Grade 8, (1994)

How does the US compete against an image that is put into the world's head when it does not have access?