CONTROL ROOM

controlroom2.1
Originally uploaded by Struthers.

Al-Jazeera is the Arab world's answer to CNN, and with 40 million viewers worldwide it is a major influence upon public opinion the region, though it is dismissed by the current White House administration as merely, 'the mouthpiece of Osama Bin-Laden'.
Control Room, by Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com), takes us inside and up close with the journalists and news gatherers working for the controversial satellite news giant as US bombs are beginning to fall on Baghdad in March of 2003.
Essentially an inside look at the Arab perspective of the 2nd Gulf War, Control Room at its core is a study of the ethics of journalistic reporting during a time of conflict, evoking those oft used sayings regarding war and the truth.
Noujaim wants to show that when CNN and Fox are televising flashy images of missiles being launched, then Al-Jazeera should not be criticized for showing where they landed, or depicting the human face of the Iraqi people we simply know as 'collateral damage'.
The recent success of documentary films at the cinema, (The Fog of War, Faranheit 9/11), would seem to highlight some of the mistrust audiences have developed for the highly controlled, 'footage and soundbite' news services that our governments have been funnelling their messages through at an increasingly sophisticated level.
Noujaim often uses contrasting footage of criticism being levied at the station from the likes of Donald Rumsfeld for reporting 'lies' and 'propaganda', with acts of editorial integrity and a deeper cultural knowledge of the Arab world, which makes some of the US journalists look positively ignorant.
This is a tightly packaged, well edited film, with engaging characters emerging from all sides of the debate, each of whom are trying to place a war into context for their respective audiences in their lounge rooms each night.

Four Stars