Control Room (film)

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 EgyptianAmerican filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, the film was distributed by Magnolia Pictures owned by 2929 Entertainment.

Control Room documents the spectrum of opinion that surrounds the Qatar television news network Al Jazeera. Throughout the film, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appears at press conferences, complaining about the propagandist nature of Al Jazeera. Paradoxically, another clip shows Muhammad Saeed alSahhaf, the Iraqi Minister of Information, accusing the television organization of transmitting American propaganda. The contrasting views between the documentarys central figures are not so clear cut. Early in the movie, press officer Lt. Rushing remarks that Al Jazeeras 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 handpick their material, and he sees what both sides leave out. Samir Khader, a senior producer of Al Jazeera, claims the networks 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.Rushing laments about Al Jazeeras bias, and speculates why the network shows no photos of alleged Iraqi military atrocities, such as soldiers holding families hostage. Abdallah 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 Thats why pictures of these things are so vital. ........

Source: Wikipedia