Note that the offending Arab TV station has a "tendency to run interviews with analysts who argued U.S. foreign policy had brought about the recent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon." As if there were another reason. Oh sorry, its about "democracy", right. US to Qatar: rein in Al-Jazeera Tuesday, 2 October 2001 20:14 (ET) http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=226316 US to Qatar: rein in Al-Jazeera By ELI J. LAKE WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Embassy in Doha has filed a formal complaint to the Qatari government about the partly state-owned Al-Jazeera satellite network's coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes on New York and the Pentagon, State Department officials told United Press International Tuesday. Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, Maureen Quinn, delivered a demarche from Washington regarding Al-Jazeera's broadcasts to Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani. Quinn asked the Qataris to investigate what the United States says is the station's tendency to run interviews with analysts who argued U.S. foreign policy had brought about the recent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The ambassador also expressed concern about the station's repeated airing of an interview with Osama bin Laden, the man the United States says is behind the Sept. 11 attacks, State Department sources said. "They are running this thing four times a day," one State Department official told UPI. "It's like giving him a free forum to justify his beliefs with no filter." "All we are asking is for balanced reporting," another official said Tuesday. "They were airing interviews from the right of center and the far right. There are plenty of other people who speak Arabic who have condemned these attacks." Although Al-Jazeera is partly owned by the Qatari government, its editorial policy is independent, an anomaly in the state-run media climate of the Middle East. It is also the largest Arabic television news channel in the world. According to the station's Washington bureau, its programs are watched by 40 million viewers regularly. <snip>