Generally, news that a handful of small, left-leaning radio stations would be syndicating an international news broadcast would not be big news. Unless, of course, the news station is Al Jazeera English.

Pacifica Radio, which runs Houston's KPFT 90.1 and stations in New York, Berkeley, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, announced Monday it would begin carrying an hour of Al Jazeera English's television news broadcast.

That this would be a controversial choice — and a decision that would cause an increase in security at KPFT's Montrose station — reflects the continuing fear and ignorance in America about any subject concerning the Middle East.

Al Jazeera English, like the original Al Jazeera, has a headquarters in Doha, Qatar, but it also broadcasts from London, Washington D.C. and Kuala Lumpur.

And though the original Al Jazeera network is known in America mostly for broadcasting videos from Al Qaeda heads and suicide bombers, including Osama bin Laden, it's not completely fair to tar the network with terrorist sympathies, any more than one could conflate Time magazine with WikiLeaks for interviewing and showcasing Julian Assange on their cover.

Al Jazeera, on the air since 1996, earned the Bush administration's ire for critical coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they've also angered the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Bahrain, Somalia and the Palestinian Authority with their reporting.

Al Jazeera English should be appreciated for exactly what it is — a serious news organization, albeit one that looks at world events from a non-American point of view (despite the efforts of Samantha Bee and The Daily Show). Watching it as a brief resident of Washington D.C. (one of the few markets where it's available, next to some T&A-friendly Russian soap operas), it gave the same sort of in-depth, international-focused coverage one can find from BBC World News or France 24.

Those opposed to its inclusion into the Houston market are welcome to not listen — and with an airtime of 5 a.m., I doubt I'll be listening either. But the idea that Al Jazeera English has no place on American airwaves is at odds with the very American values people are trying to protect.