US cable operator called a 'traitor' for carrying
Al Jazeera

Allan Block was accused of being 'a traitor' for adding
Al Jazeera English to the lineup at his cable operation, Buckeye CableSystem, a couple of months ago.

“One letter said that I should be prosecuted because I’m a traitor in wartime,” said Block, who is chairman of Block Communications, the media company that owns Toledo, Ohio-based Buckeye. “I’m certainly not a traitor to the United States.”

Buckeye’s March 19 launch of the controversial news network, sister channel to Arab-language Al Jazeera, prompted some 50 letters. It also earned Block and Buckeye a critical March 30 press release — and subsequent blistering column on April 3 — from Accuracy in Media, a media-watchdog group.

AIM alleges that Al Jazeera English is essentially “a mouthpiece” and “recruitment vehicle” for several terrorist groups — a charge that both the network and Block deny. AIM has waged a vigorous campaign to block the network’s distribution in the states.

But once Buckeye digital subscribers in Toledo, which has a sizable Middle Eastern population, actually got to see the network, complaints petered off, according to cable-system officials

Read the full story at Multichannel news

Source: Media Network