A Commentary about "Control Room"

The power of the media has always fascinated me. As a broadcasting major, I am starting to learn about and acknowledge the role that the media plays in the shaping of the present society. "Control Room" is a documentary by Jahane Noujaim that gives viewers a chance to see the Iraqi war from the Al-Jazeera network perspective. Al-Jazeera is the most watched network of the Arab world, and therefore have much power over what the Arabs know (and don't know) about the war. When I watched it, I thought that there were several truths conveyed and that the Al-Jazeera network, in its effort to remain objective in bringing the news, is seen as a major player in influencing the public opinion on the war and the parties that are involved.

I found it interesting how both sides (the American and Iraqi) claimed that Al-Jazeera is biased toward the opposition. Americans see the network as a medium of Iraqi war propaganda – the images of the brutal, occupying U.S. soldiers killing the innocent Iraqi children. The Iraqis, however, think that Al-Jazeera gets their information from the U.S. military and use the war propaganda in favor of the United States. So, where does that leave Al-Jazeera? Right in the middle of the conflict. As Samir Khader said, “You cannot wage a war without rumors, without media, without propaganda.” That’s Al-Jazeera’s purpose: to be the medium upon which the war is fought, using words and images as weapons.The other thing that jumped out to me while watching this documentary is when then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed Al-Jazeera as being biased towards the Iraqis. I have a one-word reply for that: “Duh!” As a resource for information to around 40 million Arabs, Al-Jazeera has to appeal to their target audience. If they have any intention whatsoever of keeping their network afloat, they need viewers. In order to keep those viewers, they need to share their viewers’ perspective and report from their point of view. Although Al-Jazeera claims that their reporters are capable of being objective even with their position of the war, their opinion will affect the way they deliver the news in one way or another. As Joanne Tucker, manager of AlJazeera.net said, “Objectivity is almost a mirage.” Of course, there would be a sense of nationalism on their part, because those are their fellow Arabs. They feel a sense of kinship with these people and I, for one, don’t blame them for it.

On this note, perhaps the biggest idea that struck me from this movie isn’t in the movie at all. It was left in the cutting room floor, only to be seen as a “deleted scene.” In the clip, Lt. Josh Rushing was talking about how Arab nationalism means almost the same as anti-Americanism. However, American patriotism isn’t seen as anti-Arabism. He said that, in part, it’s because of American ambivalence. I thought about that statement and I can’t help but think that it’s true. I’m definitely not saying that American nationalism should mean anti-Arabism. I’m just saying that we just stopped caring about other people because we are so self-absorbed. It’s almost as if we are desensitized from everything that is going on. We live in our little comfort bubble, enjoying our position as the most powerful nation in the world. Even some of the soldiers that are there admit that they don’t know what they are doing there – they are simply “following orders.” Here in the home front, we see a death of a soldier as passing news. We watch the destruction of cities on television while eating our fast food dinner. What we don’t see are the piles of dead bodies rotting on the streets and the suffering that takes place, not just of the Iraqis, but of our troops as well. It is as if we are in a whole other world. This is actually what makes Al-Jazeera a controversial network. They are not afraid to show the unromantic notion of war. It is sad that we can bear to see fictional gory images in the latest Hollywood flick, but we cannot force ourselves to see that these scenes have become a part of our reality. However, these images have no place in American network television, as censors would argue. And that’s why we have eye-opening documentaries as the “Control Room” that screams, “Wake up!’