Washington (CNN) - The State Department said Tuesday afternoon it had been critical of some news organizations, including al Jazeera and CNN, for their coverage of the U.S. relief efforts in Haiti.
Earlier in the day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she deeply resented some of the news reports on U.S. assistance to Haiti.
"I have absolutely no argument with anyone lodging a legitimate criticism against our country. I think we can learn from that. And we are foolish if we keep our head in the sand and pretend that we can't," Clinton told a town-hall meeting at the State Department, marking her one-year anniversary on the job.
"On the other hand, I deeply resent those who attack our country, the generosity of our people, and the leadership of our president in trying to respond to historically disastrous conditions after the earthquake. So what we're asking for is that people view us fairly," Clinton said.
Clinton did not single out any particular news agency, saying only "some of the international press either misunderstood or deliberately misconstrued what was a civilian and military response, both of them necessary in order to be able to deliver aid to the Haitians who desperately needed it."
Later her spokesman, P.J. Crowley, in his regular afternoon briefing at the State Department, mentioned both al Jazeera and CNN.
"We have had, I have had, direct conversations with our friends at al Jazeera for example," Crowley said. "We have spent sometime critiquing what we felt was unfair, unbalanced coverage of operations in Haiti. So we have those conversations when we think coverage is unfair. Occasionally we have had those conversations with CNN."
Pressed for more detail of State Department objections to CNN coverage, Crowley said "I'm done on this topic."
