Al Jazeera has a good effect on the Arab street.

This might look strange especially that it comes from someone who repeatedly had criticized Al Jazeera harshly and even accused it of being the terrorists' mouthpiece but it's still true as I believe, despite I would never withdraw my accusations that are more than well founded and that so many people share. Al Jazeera is still a pillar for terrorists and fanatics and it still serve the agenda of dictatorships in the region but they do have some good effect too.To understand that one must have some background on the official Arab media. They and Al Jazeera have very close agendas but they differ in the way they present it and they differ in where they get their finance from. While official Arab media is usually totally dependent on the state, Al Jazeera and its likes are actually profit institutions which makes them depend on pleasing as many audience as possible. Al Jazeera of course gets finance from Arab dictators and this was exposed after the liberation of Iraq through several documents that prove they received "gifts" and rearwards plus a regular payment that was said to be 50 000 US$/month. It's not a large amount of money but it seems it was a considerable regular payment and when put in mind what they might be receiving from Syria, KSA...Etc would make it clearer why Al Jazeera was and still is a mouthpiece for tyranny.But Al Jazeera and Al Arabyia served another role whether they wanted or not. Of course Al Arabyia has changed its attitude and now it's considered a pro-west channel by some Arab regimes and lately their crew in Lebanon even received threats from the Syrian intelligence as the channel officials stated. However, even before that both channels offered a great service to democracy and freedom in the ME even when they wanted exactly the opposite! For example, Al Jazzera focused, as part of its coverage for the "deteriorated situations in Iraq" on every single demonstration against the interim government or the American presence in Iraq even if it was 10 people that are demonstrating! But this coverage, that was missed in the official Arab media most of the times, showed the Arab street an unusual scene. 'Arab' citizens demonstrating freely against their government and the supposed brutal occupiers under the eyes of police!These days we hear every now and then about demonstrations almost everywhere in the Arab world. Excuse me, but this is far from usual! I haven't seen *any* demonstration against Saddam all my life and similarly I haven't heard of any in Syria or Saudi Arabia prior to the 9th of April. Most of us think it's what happened in Iraq that encouraged Arabs to demand more rights, but how could Arab citizens know the details of what's happening in Iraq if it wasn't for Al Jazeera and Al Arabyia? They don't watch western media, and the official TVs and newspapers give you only one point of view, that of the government, while Al Jazeera with all its bias host Iraqi officials and receive phone calls from Iraqi citizens on their talk shows. They twist facts, favor conspiracy theorists but in the end the audience gets more than one point of view and that's a crucial difference.Al Jazeera was the first Arab channel that host Israeli officials. Before that it seemed like you would go to hell if you talk to an Israeli citizen, not official! We heard all kind of sh*t about Israel before that but non from an Israeli source and Al Jazeera opened a door that most people thought you can't knock on.The Iraqi elections were covered fully by these two channels while official media gave it little attention and in some countries they were even ignored!I'm NOT defending Al Jazeera but I'm stating what I think a fact. That Arabs need Al Jazeera and Al Arabyia and any independent source of news even if its independency was very partial. Having such media have, and will open many eyes and minds to see reality in a different light, and those who are smart and honest enough in seeking the truth will recognize it when they see it.Before the liberation we had to dig so deep to find other sources for the news. The official Arab TVs are horrible to the degree that made Al Jazeera when it started broadcasting mean for us what probably Fox News means for Republicans! All we could hear on official media was "The historical leader" said this and the "genius" leader did that. Al Jazeera is still disgusting yes, but it offered other points of view and that was all we wanted and all what some of us needed to start looking further behind established facts.Let us not blame Arabs if the majority of them can't see other than what their dictators think, as this was all what the majority got for such a long time. You hear the same talk on TV, radio, newspapers, the school, the mosque and in the streets simply because they're all run by the tyrants or strictly watched by his intelligence.I have criticized the media a lot before but that does not mean I wish it to stop functioning. I just wish them to be more honest. We need the CNN, the BBC and even Al Jazeera but we should push them to do their job in a better way if and when we can. I don't know what changed Al Arabyia'a attitude but I'm sure Al Jazeera is not totally immune to such a change, but even without that change, they've done a great service most likely without wishing to.