Control Room

Control Room is a documentary that views the second Gulf War through the eyes of Al-Jazeera ("the Peninsula"), the popular Arab news channel, viewed by over forty million residents of the region. Though recently seen by many as propaganda, the network actually was once highly praised by many in this country for its independence. Sponsored by the leader of Qatar, a Gulf State that is our HQ in the region, it was disfavored by various Arab states for daring to air criticism and other information that did not please the leadership.

It also was quite willing to allow Western voices on to say their piece. Many of its staff and reporters came over from BBC. A comparison by a US military press spokesman to Fox News might be a quite sound one (though some might not think it high praise), both having their own biases, depending on the audience. Things were a bit different once it aired videos released by Bin Laden as well as critical views and images of the war. Again, as the press spokesman noted, they might have shown pictures of captured and slain coalition soldiers, but did the same with local dead. The coverage was not neutral, but one questions if ours was either. It surely isn't plain propaganda. Its role as a legitimate news organization was best seen by the Western press' reaction when Al-Jazeera reporters were killed by our guns.

The charm of this movie is that though it clearly airs things through the point of view of Al-Jazeera, including an executive producer and top reporter, it tells both sides. The other side is best shown by a U.S. media spokesman, who is loyal to our war aims, upset at the biases of Al-Jazeera, but aware that we too slant things as well.

It is challenging, though perhaps not as much when you opposed the war [when Rumsfeld spoke about the network promoting lies and the President spoke about good treatment of prisoners, the audience had to laugh], to understand things from the other perspective. For instance, to see how struck a woman reporter was when Baghdad fell -- everyone was like, where is the Republican Guard? How did that happen? The hatred spouted by a young boy also was striking as was hearing from a rebel leader. Imagine if we got to hear from an Iraqi fighter, which even "liberal" radio is unlikely to touch!

The director of this excellent documentary also was behind the well received Startup.com, concerning the rise and fall of a dot.com. A young rising star, Jehane Noujaim is a voice to look for in the future. It is currently playing in the Film Forum in lower Manhattan, and you can find out about screenings near you here.