Dalydalo A few things I found interesting with Al Jazerra that this film brought out. One was a scene where one of the Al Jazerra reporters see's an old colleague from the BBC and then the BBC employee asked the Al Jazerra reported who he was working for, he indicated Al Jazerra - the BBC reported responded "Of Course you are". We find out most of Al Jazeera are former BBC employees. Why is that interesting, well if one has ever seen BBC reporting and it's tainted way in delivering facts, one can see where Al Jazeera learned it's style. Unfortunately, the reporters for Al Jazeera and it's editorial/management was like listening to sophomore journalist majors in college. Now, I can't give a proper assessment of the intellect of the average Arab, but the people in this film representing Al Jazeera were not impressive with there arguments. They were clearly against US policy with Iraq War, however they never addressed the real problems in the Middle East Region. Al Jazerra unknowingly became a mouthpiece and support of corrupt Muslim leaders.The second scene was near the end of the file where the female producer was in shock of the reaction of the Iraqi's in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam. She (then later the senior editor and another person who I was not able to identify but was a employee of Al Jazeera) were quick with conspiracy theories. That the people bringing down Saddam statue were actors and that the people celebrating were Kurds - as if Arabs couldn't be happy with the removal of Saddam. Ironically, which news agency was the first to report from a Saddam Hussein rally - Al Jazeera. Talk about a staged event - I believe any protest or rally in the Arab world is staged but Al Jazeera has no problem reporting them with seriousness of any news event.I came away with the idea Al Jezeera is not a bad thing but was run by people that simply not qualified or "bright enough" to do a good fair job. However, it is worth watching to get another view and help understand how others think. I think most people who watch this file will see that Al Jezeera does preach a double standard but will never own up to it. I don't think they come close to reaching the journalistic standards of most western world.

nola_rice I just watched this documentary and I personally found it very interesting. I'm a communications major and one thing they tell you at school is that if you want to know what's going on in a specific country, you should watch that country's news. I know in war time there is no such thing as a good side or a bad side but what this movie shows is the Iraqi side, the one neither Fox, CNN or BBC will ever show. I have been against this war from the very beginning and every time I see images of all those innocent civilians, specially children, either murdered or hurt, it just breaks my heart. Although I'm not American, I also feel for those innocent soldiers who are sent there to fight for a cause they believe in, a cause that in my opinion, is nothing but an greedy, selfish, crazy man's goal. I believe the American people should watch this documentary, it may not be the absolute truth, but it can help them understand the other side of this horrific story, the one their local news, CNN or Oprah Winfrey wont show.

csymeonides An absolute must-see documentary that gives an incredibly illuminating view of the Arab world. It's not just about Al-Jazeera, it's mainly about the war in Iraq and the perspectives of different people about it. The "characters" are so interesting: the US army press officer that comes to see the other point of view, the Al-Jazzera senior produce that wants to send his kids to study in America... There are so many amazing moments, of which perhaps the most important and moving is the killing of an Al-Jazeera journalist by a US bomb.The film is balanced, gripping and excellent in terms of picture and sound editing. See it if you want to learn more about Iraq, the Arab world, the Muslim world, the war reporters and the soldiers they interact with. See it if you want to get facts and multiple perspectives, as opposed to the single perspective given by films like Fahrenheit 911.Rating: 9/10

zaphara04 Control Room is a remarkable documentary which examines the Arab news network al Jazeera and its depiction of the U.S. war with Iraq. It further illustrates the biases that permeate the media, which projects a skewed representation of the world to the public. Control Room is one of the first genuine attempts to show the Iraq War from an objective point of view. While U.S. media often justifies the presence of American troops in Iraq, glorifying U.S. soldiers as liberators, it becomes apparent that the Arabs perceive the United States as invaders. This film helps to shed some light on the blunders of the Bush Administration, exposing the truth about many aspects of this war that are continually filtered from American television.The central focus of this film is to raise awareness of newscasters' blatant fabrication of information for the purpose of inducing specific reactions out of television viewers. This is well illustrated in a segment of the video where an al Jazeera employee describes how one British newscaster, in an attempt to glorify American war efforts, recorded a group of children who were chanting in Arabic about President Bush. Even though this reporter did not understand Arabic, he reported that the children were cheering for Bush, when in fact they were cursing at him. This example supports an argument made by David Perlmutter in his essay "Living Room Wars," where he analyzes the role that media plays regarding war coverage. In a portion of his essay entitled Realism, Perlmutter discusses the damaging effects of news videos. He says that the juxtaposition of images and captions often does not convey the whole truth yet, "….very few people challenge the notion that television can express falsehood" (541). The media's censorship blinds the public from the truth about the war. Most people don't think to contend the accuracy of the information that is presented to them and as a result, willingly absorb the media's propaganda.One of the most eye-opening clips in this movie is a statement made by an Iraqi who said that American media is a leverage to induce fear in the American public. Fear is perpetuated by making Americans feel like they are under siege by the Iraq government. From an American standpoint, fear for the safety and well-being of the country justifies the Bush Administration's decision to declare war with Iraq. It is clear, however, that the vast majority of these fears are media induced and are therefore unwarranted. Several times throughout the video, Iraqis name the United States as the single greatest military threat in the world. Iraq, who admits military inferiority to the United States, has much more to fear from us than we have of them. By exposing the intent of U.S. media to instill fear into American citizens, it becomes apparent just how manipulative and hypocritical the Bush Administration truly is. There has been repeated criticism of al Jazeera for the uncensored footage of dead Iraqi civilians, stirring up anti-American sentiments and deliberately staging media to promote Arab nationalism. America accuses al Jazeera of being untruthful when U.S. media uses the exact same tactic of aiming negative sentiments at the Iraqi government to heroify the efforts of American military troops. The glorification of Americans is no new concept. James Loewen, author of "Handicapped by History" argues that the heroification of American icons, like U.S. soldiers and President Bush, stir positive sentiments in Americans and this in turn ensures a continual approval of the United States. It is distressing that we need media enhanced icons to increase our acceptance for our country. Control Room does a compelling job of illustrating the biases of war coverage. As Americans, we are sheltered from the perspectives of other countries. It is amazing how much information is butchered by the media. By the time we see the war coverage on television, it has been manipulated so much that the stories contain only a fraction of their original truthful information. By refraining from any verbal narration, the director and producer of this documentary has helped to preserve the neutrality of the film. It is interesting to see how this war is perceived on both ends of the spectrum instead of one biased account.