Egypt and America

Turmoil in Egypt a moral dilemma for U.S.

American leaders walk a tricky line as they wrestle with two clashing priorities. 

Analysis: Past blunder looms large 

Also: 

• Call for 'million man march'
• Subverting Web shutdown
• Brotherhood plays it safe

Americans turning to Al Jazeera for Egypt crisis

Though it's often not possible to watch the channel in the US for some strange reason, the website has experienced significant growth from the US in recent days. Somehow the basket weaving channel and a few hundred other mostly boring and worthless channels - jam packed with commercials, naturally - is part of the basic package, but not a foreign news service.

Interesting.

Huffington Post:

Other than in a handful of pockets across the U.S. - including Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C. - cable carriers do not give viewers the choice of watching Al Jazeera. That corporate censorship comes as American diplomats harshly criticize the Egyptian government for blocking Internet communication inside the country and as Egypt attempts to block Al Jazeera from broadcasting.

The result of the Al Jazeera English blackout in the United States has been a surge in traffic to the media outlet's website, where footage can be seen streaming live. The last 24 hours have seen a two-and-a-half thousand percent increase in web traffic, Tony Burman, head of North American strategies for Al Jazeera English, told HuffPost. Sixty percent of that traffic, he said, has come from the United States.

Al Jazeera English launched in the fall of 2006, opening a large bureau on K Street in downtown Washington, but has made little progress in persuading cable companies to offer the channel to its customers.