Unlike the other commenters here, who seem to believe Al Jazeera "just got trolled", I think the rise of 4chan - and reddit - as politically-aware entities is genuinely fascinating.<p>Of course, there's lots of trolling, grandstanding and silliness going on, but there's also a real, mostly well-intentioned attempt to change the world: redditors have given quite a lot of money and organized a political rally; 4chan has been fighting against Scientology and has (apparently?) been involved in Tunesia; etc. Wrong or right, it seems hard to explain this exclusively in terms of "lulz".<p>I will admit that my opinion of either group isn't/wasn't very high, and that I'm genuinely surprised by this behavior.
The whole article is very self-centered. The Tunisian revolution didn't start because Wiki-Leaks informed them that they live under a kleptocratic and oppressive regime. They already knew that. I also doubt that Anonymous assistance was essential to the adoption of organizational forms that are literally hundreds of years old and spontaneously emerge in nearly every revolution (neighborhood commitees etc).
Al Jazeera has really come into its own. With their coverage of Egypt, and giving an un-punditized view of Anonymous, they're being true journalists.<p>I'm not sure if my overwhelmingly positive feelings towards AJ stem from it being unexpected from a news org based in the middle east, but bravo Al Jazeera.