The Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera broadcasts an excerpt from a 2004 Osama bin Laden video in which the terrorist leader first admits direct responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks and references the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
On October 29, 2004, at 21:00 UTC, Al Jazeera broadcast excerpts allegedly from a videotape of Osama bin Laden addressing the people of the United States; in this video, he accepts responsibility for the September 11 attacks, condemns the Bush government's response to those attacks, and presents those attacks as part of a campaign of revenge and deterrence motivated by his witnessing of the destruction in the Lebanese Civil War in 1982. News analysts speculated that the release of the video was timed to influence the 2004 U.S. presidential election, which would take place four days later.
Al Jazeera (Arabic: الجزيرة, romanized: al-jazīrah, IPA: [æl (d)ʒæˈziːrɐ], literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula in context) is the state-owned Arabic-language international radio broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera Media Network. The flagship of the network, its station identification, is Al Jazeera.
The network is sometimes perceived to have mainly Islamist perspectives, promoting the Muslim Brotherhood, and having a pro-Sunni and an anti-Shia bias in its reporting of regional issues. Al Jazeera insists it covers all sides of a debate and says it presents Israeli views and Iranian views with equal objectivity. The channel's willingness to broadcast no holds barred views, for example on call-in shows, created controversies in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf. Al Jazeera was additionally the only channel to cover the war in Afghanistan live. Al Jazeera has also aired videos released by Osama bin Laden and received a journalism award from British Sports Journalism Awards and Hamas.The patent holding is a "private foundation for public benefit" under Qatari law. Under this organizational structure, the parent receives funding from the government of Qatar but maintains its editorial independence. In June 2017, the Saudi, Emirati, Bahraini, and Egyptian governments insisted on the closure of the entire conglomerate as one of thirteen demands made to the Government of Qatar during the Qatar diplomatic crisis. The channel is considered dubious by multiple independent media watchdogs and as a propaganda arm of the Qatari government.