After 30 years of championing President Hosni Mubarak on all issues, one of the strongest voices in Egypt’s state-run media, the al-Ahram newspaper, has led its Monday issue with a front page editorial reversing that stance.

The editorial, written by editor-in-chief Osama Saraya, cheers the “nobility” of the growing protest movement against Mubarak and lambastes the dictator for refusing to make serious changes.

The article didn’t explicitly call for President Mubarak to resign but the demands for reform spark a major shift from the paper, Egypt’s largest and most respected, and Saraya’s history as an advocate who can spin anything Mubarak does as heroic appears over.