Control Room (2003)

Good but not great documentary

Bottom line- has some nuggets of wisdom for people to ponder, but not arrayed in a logical fashion.

The format of this documentary is a little disjointed. However, this is a good piece to watch if you are interested in the media aspect of war, and what the effects are. It raises good questions like what is the difference in the impact of seeing a dead American on TV vice a dead Arab? And from which audience- an American one or an Arab one? One of the underlying themes is that both sides saw Al Jazeera as "working for the enemy." Recommended viewing for anyone working in Strategic Communications. August 27, 2008

Highlights the complicity of the western media in war atrocities

This is a documentary about the 'controversial' (according to the US government and the western media) Arab news channel Al Jazeera.

It consists of filming a number of the senior Al Jazeera news team and following them around. The filming occurred in the lead up and the beginning of the American lead invasion of Iraq (initially described as it's liberation [forgetting that Saddaam Hussein was put into power in a CIA backed coup] by western governments and the western media).

Of particular interest is the 'sparring' that occurs between one of the more 'rotund' members of the Al Jazeera team and the American army propaganda spokesperson. The Al Jazeera person is able to rebutt most of his arguments with authoratative ease.

We are now in the internet age and control of information is becoming more and more difficult. It is all out there, all one has to do is to find it. This film exposes how uncritical the orthodox western media is about 'government authorized material' during war time. The western media is not as objective as it would like to pretend and is complicit in the lies/ommisions that have/have not been circulated about Iraq.

One interesting fact put to bed by the film :

Remember the day when the American troops entered Baghdad? Remember when the statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down by the US army witnessed by a few hundred jubilant Iraqis? Remember how the orthodox media spent hours showing us this footage live (and on their highlight reels) and mostly ignoring the demonstrations by tens of thousands of Iraqis. The orthodox media reported this as a factual event, whilst on the internet news media this was reported as a fiction - a staged event done to placate the western voters. This film shows how the orthodox media was wrong and the unorthodox internet media correct.

And their reward for all of this? Being 'accidentally' bombed by the US army.

Shame on the western media and the zombies that follow it uncritically. April 26, 2008

Unbiased reporting vs. propaganda

While there are documentaries about the Iraq War, this may be the most significant one today.

"Control Room", the documentary covering Al Jazeera, focuses on the station's unbiased and uncensored reporting of the Iraq War. While Al Jazeera shows the brutality taken from American forces, some U.S. stations hear rumors from Central Command that Al Jazeera is showing propaganda. However, as an Al Jazeera reporter points out, there is no objectivity in war. There are two opposing sides, and the American reporters have only interviewed officials from the U.S. military's information bureau, the Central Command. And Central Command has its own agenda.

This is a shocking documentary on a different level. "Control Room" shows that there is no mercy in war. Both American and Arab news stations sense something fishy when the U.S. Central Command shows a deck of cards of 52 Iraq officers who are most wanted, but refuses to disclose the deck to the news stations. Censorship is easily imposed in wars, as well as fear. The film forces viewers to question all reporting on the American side, from the color-coded terror levels in newscasts to the "propaganda" from Al Jazeera. It forces viewers to question what information is truly biased or propaganda.

Especially in the wake of the upcoming U.S. elections, it is important to watch this film and remember the censorship and inconvenience that was spread by the U.S. government and Central Command. This is a must-see film. April 9, 2008

Very informative, and explains a lot about Propaganda

I found this movie to be very informative, and US citizens should watch this because most are unaware of how media works. I've studied Journalism, so I was very interested in this film.

Recently, while listening to NPR, I discovered that one of the main individuals featured in this documentary, Josh Rushing, has now joined the English Al Jazeera network.

If you want to understand the news media, Propaganda, and the US situation in Iraq this documentary is a good resource. Very interesting. March 22, 2008

A backstage pass to the process, the mechanism and the masters of 'spin' during times of war.

(1) Control Room is a 2004 documentary film about Al Jazeera and its relations with the US Central Command (CENTCOM), as well as the other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

(2) People featured in the film

(a) Josh Rushing, a press officer from US Central Command. He went on to work for Al Jazeera.
(b) David Shuster: an NBC correspondent
(c) Tom Mintier: a CNN correspondent.
(d) Samir Khader, a senior producer of Al Jazeera. Samir Khader later became the editor of Al-Jazeera
(e) Hassan Ibrahim, a Sudanese journalist who earlier worked for BBC and then joined Al Jazeera
(f) Deema Khatib, a Syrian journalist and a producer at Al Jazeera.

(3) Covers death of Al Jazeera reporter due to US military strike.

(4) Paints Al jazeera as an arab sympathic channel

(5) Talks from boths sides. One side saying Al Jazeera is proganda machine showing brutual and stark images of dead iraqi civilians and being anti-USA, fostering anti US rage in the Arabic community, the main viewers of Al Jazeera.

(6) Al jazeera producer saying the people who brought down the saddam statue in the city center were khurds and not Iraqis

(7) Perception of middle East that U.S is present in Iraq for the oil.

(8) Sudanese reporter Hassan Ibrahim's criticism for Bush and his supposed WMD's.

(9) Touches upon news channels used as a medium of propaganda and playing to the jingoistic nationalistic mood of the country the news feed is meant for.

(10) Explores the moral issues of war, the agressive nature of the invasion of iraq and the mass civilian casualities.

(11) Debates the issue of objectivity in reporting during the war. Do we not take sides. and is taking sides a wrong thing in journalism. Is journalism giving more of what the people want to hear and thus increase their network rating or is it about being neutral. But is it possible if at all to stay neutral in such a situation ?

...Till date iraq war has cost the national exchequer 470 billion dollars. Very interesting, eyeopening. The news as it happens when it happens.The Control room is a backstage pass to process, the mechanism and the masters of 'spin' during times of war.

regards, Vikram February 10, 2008

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