• New York Sun, Wednesday, November 22, 2006 11:30 AM

One of the many peculiar things about Al-Jazeera, writes Brendan Bernhard, is that the Arabic-language news channel launched in 1996 has brought news and information to people who, for the most part, are unable to act on it. "It has been an oasis of free (or apparently free) expression in a desert of dictatorships," he says, with the ability to stir anger, but not the kind that is satisfied with voting someone out of office or changing governments.

b In that sense, there has always been something artificial about it, as if it had taken up residence in a realm of pure theory. But now comes Al-Jazeera English. Even if most Americans will only be able to watch it y on the Internet--major American cable and satellite companies have thus far declined to carry it--the new channel has offices in Washington and London as well as Doha, Qatar, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is funded by Qatar's emir.

Al-Jazeera English made its debut last Wednesday, and Bernhard says that one reason for its absence from American screens may be political; another may be its global range, which could make American nets look parochial.

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