Al-Jazeera’s obituary of Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda, calls him the man “allegedly” behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This odd formulation reflects the channel’s favorable coverage of the 9/11 “truth” movement, which pinned the attacks on the U.S. and/or Israeli governments. But even more significant is the fact that Al-Jazeera was bin Laden’s medium of choice and transmitted his anti-American message to millions of Arabs and Muslims. This is a fact that the network does not want to trumpet, especially because it has tried to soften its image in a drive to get more carriage for its English-language channel on American television cable and satellite systems.
