Control Room (2004)

Control Room is a documentary whose main intention is to clear the name of the Al Jazeera reporting of the Iraq war, since in the United States, members of the Bush administration referred to this channel as the mouthpiece of terrorist organizations, most especially, Al Qaeda. This documentary seeks to show that this belief is not true and that it is merely propaganda to discredit its image. When one watches this documentary, one would not fault the way Al Jazeera covered the news during the Iraq war because it is revealed that the coverage was balanced and to the point. Al Jazeera showed the true picture of the war and not what the American government wished for its people to see; the realities of the war. In fact, if one carefully considers the information which this channel broadcast during this war, there would be a realization that the American public would not have supported such a war had they seen what it did not, only to the Arabs of Iraq, but also to the American men and women who went to fight in the war. Control Room is an eye opener towards some of the events which took place in Iraq and how these events were covered by the Al Jazeera network. It reveals that, despite the statements made against it by the Bush administration, none of the statements made were true and were, in fact, an attempt to cover up the truth about the war from the American public. This documentary is an attempt to show the news about the Iraq war, not from the perspective of the media of the west, but that of the region in which the war occurred.

The first scenes of this documentary seem to reinforce the belief that it is a network whose sole purpose is the spread of anti-American propaganda. The people who are seen working behind the scenes are all dressed in traditional Arab headgear, and when the American president issues an ultimatum to the Iraqi president, it is seen that those observing in the room jeer at the former. While, for many, this would reinforce the stereotype that has come to plague the Al Jazeera network, the truth is that the scene was inserted in the documentary to show that this network is not as different from those in the west as many would think. The documentary reveals that the statements by President Bush and his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, that Al Jazeera was the mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden and that it was the centre of anti-American propaganda in the United States are completely unfounded. In fact, it is revealed that the exact opposite is the truth; that Al Jazeera is a network which is dedicated to presenting balanced news about the Middle East to the entire world. It is not mired down by state or political interests but in the interest of providing quality news. This documentary takes the audience behind the scenes, and reveals the people who are behind the collection of the news that is presented at Al Jazeera. While this network is much disliked and thought of in a negative light by some people, it has one of the largest viewer bases in the world, competing with such channels as BBC and CNN. During the Iraq war, this network was among the one with the most presence in the country, and it lost several journalists who were caught in American bombing while doing their jobs on the ground. In an attempt to achieve objectivity in its coverage of the war, it showed images of American servicemen and Iraqis who had been killed in the war, as well as the destruction which accompanied the deaths. Such images were rarely if at all, shown by the media of the West which reveals that Al Jazeera was more objective than they were. Such situations came to be seen as this network working against the interests of America, something which the documentary reveals to be untrue.

The documentary is shot at the Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar, and it is here that the image of this network as a producer of anti-American propaganda is burnished. Instead, what is revealed is an image of people who work hard just like in other networks to bring the news from the field and present it to the public. What is shown is that it is not a network of propaganda as some have put it, but one which functions regularly. In fact, the documentary shows that the biases against the network do not stem from the network’s actions, but from the various administrations in the west, particularly the United States. The documentary does not just reveal information from one side, but it works towards showing what people from the other side think. Among those who are interviewed is Josh Rushing who is a media liaison for the American military and has a strong belief in the correctness of America’s mission in Iraq. There is also one Hassan Ibrahim, a journalist who works for the BBC and whose only mission in his work is to find out the truth. Both of these people reveal their true feelings concerning America’s mission in Iraq and the role of the media in its coverage. The stance taken by these men on various matters can be a surprise to many who watch the documentary as they show just how difficult it is to achieve objectivity in the coverage of any news story. There is also the revelation from some of those interviewed that they have a strong commitment to democracy and that they, in fact, immensely admire the constitution of the United States. This would surprise many in the wet because of the fact that most of the countries of the Middle East, in which Al Jazeera is based, are autocracies or absolute monarchies. This crumbles the common western stereotype that Al Jazeera is for the sole purpose of inflaming the Middle Eastern public against the American government and people. Instead, the image of a news network that is dedicated to the objective presentation of news to the world is revealed. The documentary serves as a redeemer for the tarnished image of Al Jazeera and presents it as a network deserving of merit for the work that it does.