At the OpinionJournal (free registration required), a good editorial looks at the true agenda of Al Jazeera TV: Bin Laden’s Private TV Channel.

The secret of al Jazeera’s undoubted success, however, lies not in its craven approach to Arab leaders, but elsewhere. It tells Arabs what they already think the mythical “Arab street” feels. It assumes that radical Islamism is on the rise in all Arab countries and that it’s secretly supported by the majority. This is why al Jazeera talk shows, the backbone of its programming, favor radical Islamists. The situation also takes for granted that the average Arab is deeply anti-West and especially anti-American. The channel creates the impression that the West, and the U.S. in particular, are behind all of the Arabs’ woes, including the presence of incompetent and corrupt regimes.

My opinion, with no evidence whatsoever, is that the Arab regimes themselves are behind Al Jazeera. If, as Karl Marx wrote, religion is the opiate of the masses, then Al Jazeera is the hypodermic needle.