In praise of Al Jazeera English

I was told in a response to a previous post that Al Jazeera English is not a reliable source on what's going on in Gaza. This is a stunning statement considering that Al Jazeera is probably the only channel that has reporters on the ground inside Gaza as well as in the Israeli cities that are being targeted by Palestinian rockets, risking their lives to show both sides of the conflict.
It's hardly Al Jazeera's fault that the basic facts and numbers make Israel look like the more violent part - with 20 times more palestinians being killed in one day than the number of Israelis killed by Palestinian rockets in the past years.
Also read this "Gaza strip: In praise of Al Jazeera" on the LA Times middle east blog, and don't miss "part 2."
A short excerpt:

"Now here's the really weird part. Jazeera International, the English-language channel that launched in November 2006, isn't available on the vast majority of America's cable systems. Nearly all cable operators in the U.S. refused to offer the channel to its viewers. As of July of this year, the channel was offered by just a handful of cable companies, including a small cable provider in Burlington, Vt.
I'll leave it up to our readers to debate just why, in a capitalist system based on the idea of free speech, most American viewers aren't even offered the option of paying extra to watch Al Jazeera in English."