Al Jazeera Feeds Spurring Own War: Cnn Vs. The Rest

CNN moved Monday to quiet a firestorm of criticism from its competitors concerning its exclusivity arrangement with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera Channel.

CNN chairman Walter Isaacson called fellow network executives Monday afternoon to tell them that the cable network would not enforce the six-hour embargo that Al Jazeera had placed on its video with the other networks.

"We have an exclusive," CNN spokesman Matthew Furman said. "We believe the exclusivity is enforceable. We're not going to enforce it because of the unique circumstances and compelling national interest. We believe it's the right thing to do."

Rival networks welcomed Isaacson's stance, but it left some scratching their heads because certain Turner Broadcasting executives were still issuing warnings Monday morning about use of the Al Jazeera footage. But, for now, peace reigned.

The flap was set off over the weekend when CNN's competitors complained that the network was trying to strong-arm them into not running Al Jazeera footage of the bombing of Afghanistan on Sunday, though its airing should have been considered "fair use" under federal copyright laws.

CNN pointed out it was Al Jazeera that sent a letter warning the networks against airing the video. The networks retorted that the note came from a CNN fax machine and thus bore the cable news network's implicit consent.

Al Jazeera sent a second letter to CNN rivals Monday.

"Although this usage is considered an act of piracy, CNN and Al Jazeera made a decision to ignore it for one day only," said the letter, which was signed by Mohammed Jasim Al-Ali, the channel's managing director. "If we have to, we will enforce it through our legal departments."

Executives did not react strongly to the second note because of the lack of news emanating from Al Jazeera on Monday.

"It's day-by-day," MSNBC president and general manager Erik Sorenson said. "If (Osama) bin Laden hand-delivers another tape to Al Jazeera with his view of the world, I think you'll see American networks broadcast it."

Fox News Channel vp newsgathering John Stack agreed: "We'll have to see how it settles into a norm. We'll judge on a case-by-case basis."

But CNN's rivals also offered an olive branch, saying they wanted to adhere to CNN's contract with Al Jazeera when there were no important breaking-news events.

Furman insisted that the network did not know of the second Al Jazeera warning memo and declined comment on whether CNN editors had called the FNC assignment desk Sunday demanding they stop using the video.

Another flap arose Monday when MSNBC and Fox complained about a "CNN Exclusive" tag the network put up on the green-tinted video aired depicting the second night's attack in and around Kabul, shot with a video phone equipped with a night scope.

NBC and MSNBC showed similar video Monday using their own nightscope, but Furman said the "exclusive" tag was legitimate because "it's our video phone as opposed to anyone else's. They don't have the same video as ours.

MSNBC's Sorenson tweaked CNN, terming it "the same strain of silliness that's driving this whole Al Jazeera thing. We have a camera that has a night scope. Exclusivity usually implies unique. It isn't unique."