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174 of 189 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fair and balanced news? Isn't that what they all say?, November 27, 2004
This review is from: Control Room (DVD)
This award winning 2003 documentary tells the story of the war in Iraq from the point of view of Al Jazeera, the television network that brings the news to 40 million people in the Arab-speaking world. Many of the challenges it faces are shared by journalists everywhere. They risk their lives to bring a story to the people. And they are all under pressure to spin the story to their employers' wishes.
The viewer meets the people who produce this news network. There's the director Samir Khader, the chain smoking and cynical head of the organization. He freely admits he'd be willing to work for Fox News if offered the job and wants to send his children to America for their educations. There's Hassan Ibrahim, a former BBC correspondent. He's a well-spoken pudgy man with a clear mind, who sees the world through a slightly different filter that I do. And a lot of what he says makes sense challenging my perceptions on a very human level. There's Deema Khatib, one of the Al Jazeera staff members, whose playful expressive large brown eyes sparkle with a great sense of humor, She's unveiled and modern and obviously well educated. Then there is Lieutenant Josh Rushing, who clearly is doing his best to explain U.S. policy. He's blue eyed and personable and very American and has a calm demeanor and a high intellect. His interchanges with Al Jazeera personnel show a depth of understanding for all sides of the question. And yet he is steadfast in his support of America.
The film begins in March 2003 as American troops invade Iraq. Al Jazeera shows pictures of the casualties. The American news media does not. Al Jazeera is fast to point out some troubling realities of American foreign policy. And, in this documentary at least, it attempts show that its news coverage is fair and balanced. But then, again, isn't that what they all say?
This film made me think.
And what made me think even more were the special features included on the DVD which show more interviews with the subjects of the film and adds a bit of humanity to them all, including the American Lieutenant who has the hard job of trying to placate all sides.
The situation in the world today is complex. I came away with more insight into its depths. There are no real answers. Only serious questions.
This is fine and troubling film that challenges all our perceptions. Highly recommended.
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33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So much more than bargined for..., October 5, 2004
This review is from: Control Room (DVD)
This documentary is spell binding and without spin.... It was an instant-replay to the start of the war all over again from an unfiltered lens, most refreshing. Michael Moore had all the fireworks and media blitz but this little gem had all the details. This is truely a movie to celebrate the free speech and to gain an understanding of others. America it's time to take off the blinders and re-evaluate our country and what it means to all of us. Cheers to Jehane and her crew for making such an important piece of film.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Out-"Foxed" by Al-Jazeera...Media Spin is Multilingual, October 23, 2004
This review is from: Control Room (DVD)
Having just seen Robert Greenwald's "Outfoxed" about the media manipulation we are subjected to by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, specifically the Fox Network, this eye-opening documentary is a fascinating counterpoint from the perspective of the famous and sometimes infamous Middle East news agency, Al-Jazeera. I cannot think of two more diametrically opposite news agencies reporting on the events in Iraq, but the key difference between them is that Al-Jazeera appears to admit to their biases rather than claim to be "fair and balanced". What is more startling is how much more similar they are in operation than they are different in their presentation of political opinion disguised as facts. Obviously filmmaker Jehane Noujaim takes a more sympathetic portrait of Al-Jazeera and does supply clear evidence where Al-Jazeera is right and the American government is wrong on certain Iraqi events. As an overview of the first independent and now most popular news channel in the Middle East, the film takes a hard look at the key milestones from Bush's threat of invasion through the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
One would think Michael Moore funded this documentary from the damning evidence presented, but Noujaim is nothing but thorough in illustrating the Bush administration's changing rationales for invading Iraq, the use of fear in the media to manipulate public opinion, the martyrdom of Jessica Lynch, the card deck identifying the most wanted men in Hussein's regime, and the suspiciously coincidental bombing deaths of three different Arab journalists on the same day by American planes. Al-Jazeera's perspective is unsurprisingly countered by Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, who accuses the news agency of faking pictures of civilian deaths. But Noujaim cuts to indisputable pictures of real victims from the American bombing. One of the most revealing moments in the film is the Al-Jazeera team's shocked disbelief witnessing the fall of Hussein's Iraq as they try to make their emotional response correspond to what they must rationally have expected all along. Noujaim spotlights several of Al-Jazeera's personalities, and each provides a unique opinion on both their news coverage as well as that of their American counterparts. Their begrudging respect for the Fox Network, for example, is an intriguing revelation among many presented here. Ultimately though, their disgust over American imperialism is clear, as reporter Hassan Ibrahim, as bitter an idealist as you'll ever see, decries, "Eventually you'll have to find a solution that doesn't involve bombing someone into submission... democratize or I will shoot you." Another eye-opener is how Al-Jazeera does not hesitate to invite Americans to give their point-of-view on the network, which is something the Fox Network purports to do but does so miserably due to the bullying tactics of their own personalities, Sean Hannity and of course, Bill O'Reilly. Those who have grown tired of the spin coming from the Bush administration will find this documentary valuable viewing. Highly recommended.
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