Hi Vince,
Several months ago, I saw a report on a dutch channel about Al Jazeera.
The Arab news channel was not liked in various Arab countries (showing its independant mind). It has a talk show inviting representatives and it was quite revealing how difficult it is for 2 persons with 2 different viewpoints to even listen to each other, which lead the anchorman to state that democracy is not coming soon. To show that to the Arab population is already a great step.
About the OBL tapes, well, apparently according a journalist I saw last saturday on a french program, there's a guy who brings a sealed package to the studio and he's gone before they have any chance to ask questions.

Raoul