Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network, has long wanted to gain a bigger American television audience, and it may have finally found a way to do that by buying Current TV. But as the deal was being signed, Time Warner Cable announced it would immediately stop carrying Current, a struggling channel partly owned by former Vice President Al Gore. While the cable company has the legal right to cut off Current, the decision is unfortunate and could block access to an important news source.

Many American policy makers and cable companies have had doubts about the impartiality of Al Jazeera, which is owned and financed by the emir of Qatar. Some have questioned the decision of Mr. Gore and his co-founder, Joel Hyatt, to sell Current, which is available to roughly 60 million American homes, to the Qatari government.

The emir, though he works closely with Washington on some issues, has interests and agendas that are sometimes at odds with United States interests. Recently, for instance, Qatar along with other Arab nations is believed to have provided arms and other assistance to terrorist organizations operating in Syria. Al Jazeera says its journalism is not directed by the policies and views of its government, but the fact that it is owned by Qatar means that there is no guarantee of its independence.

Nonetheless, Al Jazeera could bring an important international perspective to American audiences and should be given a chance to prove itself commercially before cable companies remove Current TV from their lineups. If Al Jazeera America, the channel that the company plans to create in New York to replace Current, fails to attract a critical mass of viewers, cable companies would be justified in removing it. On Thursday, Time Warner suggested that it might add the new channel to its systems in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere later “as the service develops.”