Review of Control Room (2004) by V H — 21 Jun 2004

This documentary focuses on Arab network Al-Jazeera's coverage of the war in Iraq. In contrast to the harsh criticism the network has received by the Bush administration for the supposedly incendiary footage it's chosen to air, this film portrays the Al-Jazeera journalists as both intelligent and ethical. They seem quite aware of the line they straddle between the Arab world, which views them as pro-U.S., and the U.S., which views them as "Osama Bin Laden's mouthpiece".

Although Al-Jazeera clearly panders to their Arab audience, this is depicted as being no different than the media bias shown by American networks...essentially giving the people what they want while trying to maintain some level of journalistic standards. In one example of an attempt to present balanced coverage, the film shows a producer chastising an underling for having set up an interview with a purported American analyst who turns out to be an anti-war extremist. The same producer later admits that if Fox News offered him a job, he'd take it.

Though the film touched on several discrepancies between the official U.S. military versions of events and those of the Al-Jazeera reporters, there was never really much investigative follow-up, nor were any definitive conclusions reached. Though leaving so many loose ends untied was somewhat unsatisfying, resolving issues wasn't the point of the documentary. Rather, it was the fact that there are two sides to every story, and although simply dismissing the Arab perspective as presented by Al-Jazeera as inherently biased and inaccurate, and accepting the U.S. version as told by Donald Rumsfeld as THE TRUTH may be comforting to all patriotic Americans, critical thinking has never been more important.