last night we saw the control room. i missed the film when it premiered at the philadelphia film festival and i've been waiting for it to come out ever since. i wasn't disappointed.
the film profiles the arab news network al-jazeera and the film record the events in the network's control room during the two months of "major combat operations" in the iraq war. as you get to know the personalities behind the cameras from the network, it is interspersed with scenes from the war itself and american military personnel who are clearly (and with great success) trying to manipulate the coverage of the conflict.
the film also occasionally cuts to clips of donald rumsfeld stating that al-jazeera is biased and that no one should believe anything they see on the network. the irony is that the rumsfeld clips themselves were broadcast by al-jazeera (you can clearly see the networks logo in the lower corner of the screen and an al-jazeera microphone at rumsfeld's mouth). rumsfeld's statements therefore create a version of the liar's paradox. as rumsfeld himself says on the screen "once someone starts lying, how can you ever take them seriously." indeed.
one truly striking bit is when a bunch of al-jazeera staff members are arguing about when the u.s.' dominance of the world will end. some were arguing that eventually a new power will emerge to challenge the u.s. but hassan ibrahim, an al-jazeera reporter, disagreed. "the americans will put an end to america's domination. i believe in the u.s. constitution, the american people will check themselves."
when i saw that scene i thought of a news story from just the past week. a few days ago, the u.s. refused to invite the emir of qatar to a meeting about democracy in the muslim world because the country (which hosts al-jazeera) will not clamp down on the network's content. qatar is probably the biggest supporter of the free press in the region. al-jazeera is based in its territory but freely criticizes all of the regimes in the arab world, even the leadership of qatar. when i heard mr. ibrahim's moving statement about his faith in the u.s. constitution, it struck me that these people who the bush administration has dismissed as "anti-american" understand the u.s. constitution better than the administration does.
nathan newman also saw the film a few weeks ago and his take is also worth reading.
