Control Room is a 2004 documentary film about Al Jazeera and its relations with the US Central Command (CENTCOM), as well as the other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Made by Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, the film was distributed by Magnolia Pictures (owned by 2929 Entertainment). Image File history File links Control Room DVD cover This image is of a DVD cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the DVD or the studio which produced the movie in question. ... Jehane Noujaim is an Egyptian-American documentary film director best-known for her films Control Room and Startup. ... Samir Khader is the editor of Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. ... Lt. ... The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. ... The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival in the United States, and ranks alongside the Cannes, France, Venice, Italy, Berlin, Germany, and Toronto, Canada festivals as one of the most prestigious in the world. ... Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ... Al Jazeera logo Al Jazeera (الجزيرة), meaning The Island or The (Arabian) Peninsula (whence also Algiers) is an Arabic television channel based in Qatar. ... Emblem of the United States Central Command. ... Emblem of the United States Central Command. ... The subject of this article is the 2003 invasion of Iraq. ... Jehane Noujaim is an Egyptian-American documentary film director best-known for her films Control Room and Startup. ... Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor, and is a holding of 2929 Entertainment, owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban. ... 2929 Entertainment is a vertically integrated media company with holdings in film and television production, film distribution, theatrical exhibition, home entertainment, television, and syndication. ...

People featured in the film include Lieutenant Josh Rushing, a press officer from US Central Command, David Shuster, an NBC correspondent, and Tom Mintier, a CNN correspondent. Al Jazeera was represented by Samir Khader, a senior producer, Hassan Ibrahim, a Sudanese journalist who attended American universities and headed the BBC Arab News Service before joining Al Jazeera, and Deema Khatib, a Syrian journalist and a producer at Al Jazeera. Samir Khader later became the editor of al-Jazeera [1]. Josh Rushing has also started working for Al Jazeera. Lt. ... David Shuster is a correspondent for Hardball w. ... NBC (a former acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... The Cable News Network, commonly known as CNN, is a major cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. ... Samir Khader is the editor of Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion (US$7. ...

Topics

Al Jazeera's role in Arab society

Control Room documents the spectrum of opinion that surrounds the Qatar television news network Al Jazeera. Throughout the film, Donald Rumsfeld appears at press conferences, complaining about the propagandist nature of Al Jazeera. Paradoxically, another clip shows Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf himself accusing the television organization of transmitting American propaganda. The contrasting views between the documentary’s central figures are not so clear cut. Early in the movie, press officer Lt. Rushing remarks that Al Jazeera bias leads it to focus exclusively on American tanks and Iraqi casualties, yet he later confides that agencies such as Fox News also appear to hand-pick their material, and he sees what both sides leave out. Samir Khader, a senior producer of Al Jazeera, claims the network's purpose is to shake up the rigid infrastructure of Arab society, which he believes has fallen behind, culturally and technologically, because of its social intolerance to other cultures and perspectives. Al Jazeera logo Al Jazeera (الجزيرة), meaning The Island or The (Arabian) Peninsula (whence also Algiers) is an Arabic television channel based in Qatar. ... Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is a U.S. politician and businessman, who was the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975–1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001–2006. ... Soviet Propaganda Poster during the Great Patriotic War. ... Former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf (Arabic محمد سعيد الصحاف also Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf) (born 1940) is a former Iraqi diplomat and politician. ... Fox News Channels slogan is We Report, You Decide The Fox News Channel is a U.S. cable and satellite news channel. ...

Objectivism vs. perspectivism

Several times, the journalists at Al Jazeera and CENTCOM press officer Lt. Rushing collide in a debate which often stems from the different ways these parties view the problem of war coverage. The journalists often display a perspectivist viewpoint, focusing on the perception of arguments from various audiences, while the press officer, being objectivist, focuses on facts which justify his viewpoint during this war. Rushing states, 'I am not stepping down from my conviction,' in defense of the U.S.'s liberating purpose in Iraq. However, when asked how this purpose might appear to the average Iraqi viewer, he softens: 'I can see how it can be perceived as that.' While his conviction may be well justified, given many facts, Hassan Ibrahim, an Al Jazeera journalist, illustrates the counterpoint: regardless of the truth, George Bush's presentation — an ominous, 48-hour ultimatum — has managed to 'galvanize the Iraqi people to Saddam', as were the Iraqi men shown in the beginning of the film in the coffeeshop. Emblem of the United States Central Command. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ... Saddam Hussein Saddām Hussein ʻAbd al-Majid al-Tikrītī (Often spelt Husayn or Hussain; Arabic صدام حسين عبدالمجيد التكريتي; born April 28, 1937...

At one point during Control Room, Rushing reflects on Al Jazeera's transmission of images of American POWs and casualties, an act severely frowned upon and reprimanded by coalition forces and western governments as being in breach of the Geneva Convention. Rushing notes that, though he was filled with dismay by images of his countrymen dead and wounded being displayed on Arab television, the previous day had seen the transmission of dead and wounded Iraqis on western news networks, to which his reaction was comparatively slight. Such images, Rushing admits, would doubtless have had much the same distressing effect on Arabs as the images of dead and wounded Americans had on himself; he admits that he is upset that he himself did not feel as much when witnessing the images of dead and wounded Iraqis as when he saw images of similarly injured US troops. Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ... The Geneva Conventions consist of treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland that set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns. ...

It is cynically noted by Hassan Ibrahim that few remarks were made upon the applicability of the Geneva Convention, in the cases of transmitting images of Iraqi wounded and prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Upon witnessing the statement delivered by Donald Rumsfeld, concerning the images of US dead and captives, he exclaims 'NOW there's a Geneva Convention?' Thus the film also focuses upon the limitations set upon objectivity by group affiliation, and also the related process by which apparently universally recognised laws might be viewed as being applicable only to those outside the bounds of that group.

Bias in the media

Rushing laments about Al Jazeera's bias, and speculates why the network shows no photos of alleged Iraqi military atrocities, such as soldiers holding families hostage. Abdullah Schleifer, an American reporter, counters that no such pictures exist. He has no doubt these atrocities occur. However, he explains that hearsay filtering down through CentCom is not convincing to skeptical Arab viewers; 'That's why pictures of these things are so vital.'

A crucial point in the documentary comes with Lt. Rushing's realisation that Fox News displays that same lack of objectivity which he accuses Al-Jazeera of perpetuating - his conclusion drives home the point that media bias is institutionalised on both sides and objectivity is a myth.

Given the subject of this film, pictures are so important because they transcend language. Unless there is concern that they have been contrived, they give useful information to all perspectives. This is what a producer for Al Jazeera claims was the motivation for showing dead American soldiers and Iraqi civilians. As for objectivity, she discards it as 'a mirage'. The film concludes that war is something that makes emotionless involvement impossible for any involved party.

Freedom of the media

One of the central focuses of Control Room is on the alleged friendly fire attack against the Baghdad headquarters of Al Jazeera, on 8th April 2003. The film shows footage of the attack, including the firing of a missile by an American A-10 'tankbuster'; the film reports that the alleged target was a group of insurgents who opened fire on coalition forces from within the Al Jazeera building, thus justifying retaliatory fire. Some doubt is expressed within as to whether such an explanation is viable. During the attack, one correspondent working for the news network, Tariq Ayoub, was killed; the film records one subsequent episode during a press conference, when the late Ayoub's wife beseeches journalists to 'tell the truth' concerning her husband's death, for the sake of those innocents already killed during the war. Friendly fire (fratricide or non-hostile fire) is a term originally adopted by the United States military in reference to an attack on friendly forces by other friendly forces,[1] which may be deliberate (e. ... Baghdad (Arabic: ) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft designed to provide close air support (CAS) of ground forces by attacking tanks, armored vehicles, and other ground targets. ...

The same day that witnessed the attacks on Al Jazeera also saw attacks on other news networks: a strike by US troops on the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad killed a Spanish TV cameraman and a Reuters cameraman. Claims that US troops were returning fire upon a sniper were 'greeted with incredulity by reporters on the ground, including Sky News reporter David Chater, and at central command in Qatar.'[2] On the same day, Abu Dhabi TV was also hit, 'which means the US forces [had] attacked all the main western and Arab media headquarters in the space of just one day'[3]. Reuters Group plc (LSE: RTR and NASDAQ: RTRSY); pron. ... Sky News is a British television news organisation, which was founded in February 1989 as part of the four channel Sky Television network. ... Abu Dhabi or Abu Zaby (Arabic language: أبوظبي) is the largest of the seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates and was also the largest of the former Trucial States. ...

The aftermath of the attack saw a number of allegations: Al Jazeera claimed to have sent the Pentagon details of their staff's position via GPS co-ordinates, as did several other news networks. At the time, sources from the BBC noted with alarm that 'the Pentagon did not seem to pay heed to information they had been given by al-Jazeera and every other TV organisation based in [Baghdad]'[4]. The overwhelming majority of opinion amongst the Arabic media seems to be that the US acted in order to prevent the reporting of war crimes perpetrated by American personnel[5]; the attack on Al Jazeera was thus deliberate, a theory which seems to have support from Robert Fisk [6][7]. In Control Room, the situation is remarked upon by a senior member of Al Jazeera, who remarks that a small news network cannot hope to combat the forces of the United States; in the face of such an apparent censure by so mighty an opponent - he laments - what may one do but 'shut up'? This article is about the U.S. military building. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion (US$7. ... In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... For people named Robert Fiske, see Robert Fiske (disambiguation). ...

Special features

The special features that accompany the DVD contain further interviews.

• In one, Hassan Ibrahim states his belief that Bush's actions are just as much terrorism as Bin Laden's, and that any use of violence is terrorism. The unidentified person speaking with Ibrahim retorts "So there is no such thing as terrorism?"

• In another segment Deema Khatib states that her personal views do not colour what Al Jazeera presents, because "Al Jazeera just presents information".

Trivia

• Josh Rushing would later join the staff of Al Jazeera International, after leaving the United States Marine Corps [8].

• In actuality, Josh Rushing only gave a single forty minute interview for the documentary, and was unaware that it was to be shown to the public. He was told it was for a graduate student project. Control Room had segmented the interview into portions.

AJI emblem Al Jazeera International is a 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar. ... France Marines is the name of a commune in the département of Val dOise, France. ...

See also

• Axis of Evil
• Baghdad or Bust
• Kill the Messenger
• My Country, My Country
• War Feels Like War

Axis of Evil, is a 2004 France-Canada co-production by Pascal Lievre about a couple declaring their love for each other with the same words United States President George W. Bush used to declare war on terrorism. ... Baghdad or Bust was a small budget documentary filmed in Canada, Turkey, Kurdistan, Israel, Jordan, and Washington, D.C, during the US-led Invasion of Iraq. ... Kill the Messenger is a suspense thriller by author Tami Hoag. ... My Country, My Country is a documentary filmed in Iraq. ... War Feels Like War is a 2004 British documentary film. ...

External links

• Noujaim Films - Control Room official website
• International Trailer
• Control Room at Google Video
• Control Room at the Internet Movie Database
• Metacritic - Control Room review collection
• Rotten Tomatoes - Control Room review collection
• Open Directory Project - Control Room directory category