It is comical, if not cynical, the way American television anchors descended on Cairo recently and have taken upon themselves the task of fostering democracy there, even though they themselves are guilty of passively acquiescing to censorship back home. I’m talking about the virtual broadcasting ban on Al Jazeera English in the United States. The New York Times and the Washington Post have finally taken notice of how the Arab network has been doing yeoman service by providing wall-to-wall coverage of revolutions in the Middle East. Of course, Fox and other right-wing media outlets continue to debunk Al Jazeera as an anti-American jihadi network. But it is obvious to those who watch the channel that Al Jazeera is only as biased as any other news network in any democracy. As citizens of a global superpower with global interests and responsibilities, it is imperative that Americans are exposed to non-Western media perspectives of the world. In that context, Al Jazeera is one of its kind – even India, with all its independent media credentials, could not come up with a world-class news network in terms of coverage and reach. It is time U.S. cable and satellite TV service providers end their self-censorship – inspired by a self-serving eagerness to cater to pseudo-patriotic sentiments of the far right – and offer Al Jazeera English to their subscribers. Freedom of the press without a corresponding right to information is but a shallow catchphrase.