US disappointed but al Jazeera defends decision to air tape

The US government asked the government of Qatar to stop al Jazeera from broadcasting the latest Osama bin Laden tape after receiving a copy of the tape before it aired, a US official said on Friday. “We received a copy of the tape before it was aired. We asked the government of Qatar not to air it… We are disappointed that they did air it. The issue of al Jazeera and its unbalanced and inflammatory coverage continues to be an irritant in the bilateral relationship,” said the State Department official who asked not to be named.
“We don’t think you should be providing a platform for massmurders to incite terrorists. That’s the purpose of bin Laden making a video and giving it to al Jazeera: to propagate his message of hate and violence,” he said.
Al Jazeera television defended its decision to show the tape saying it was news any media would have jumped on. “We don’t believe anyone can argue about the newsworthiness of this latest Osama bin Laden recording. Any news organisation would have aired the tape if they had received it,” Al Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ballout said.