Control Room Vs. F9/11

[bryant69]

I don't know if this has been discussed yet; but thought I would mention that I saw Control Room last night. For those who aren't familiar with it, it is a documentary on how al-Jazeera covered the Invasion of Iraq. It's very well done, and in some ways is superior to Farenheit 9/11. It has two great advantages, in my mind.

1). It humanizes the Muslim/Arabic people in a way neither the American Media nor Michael Moore's movie accomplishes. Part of this is that Moore is focused on President Bush, and thus only takes us to the middle east for brief periods of time. Granted he shows them in a sympathetic light. But showing them as helpless victims doesn't humanize them much more than showing them as cartoonish villians. It still denys them that spark of individuality. (Again, i'm aware he had a limited amount of time). Whereas in Control Room because it is focused on the al-Jazeera staff, it spends a lot more time showing them as people.

2). Control Room is a lot more removed and even clinical in how it presents its information. In that way, I think it encourages a great deal more skepticism about how we treat the news; both American news sources and Al Jazeera itself. Michael Moore's movie is very manipulative. I'm not saying it's not a great film; I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think it made numerous great points. But it's hard to buy a message about not letting the media manipulate you when you are watching a movie that is also trying to manipulate you. The distance in Control Room, showing how stories are formed (on both sides of the fence), gives you the distance to come to your own conclusions.

On the other hand, Control Room obviously doesn't cover how the Bush Adminsitration Deceived us into Iraq, nor does it cover the connections between the Bush Family and Saudi Arabia (possibly the most important aspect of Farenheit 9/11. So I would still think they are both good and important movies to see.

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Wind Dancer]

1. The Control Room

is an excellent documentary - it takes you to a much deeper level than F-911 with its up-close look at the invasion in Iraq. It is disturbing to watch but a must see.

Lt. Rushing, the press room officer in CentCom, is retiring after 14 years in the military and was forbidden to speak with anyone about this documentary.

[bryant69]

2. Yeah, Rushing is really one of the heroes

of the movie. But I can see why they didn't want him speaking out.

[Wind Dancer]

3. It was amazing to watch how

Lt. Rushing initially believed in this war but over time, his conversations with Hassan Ibrahim didn't have the passion anymore. He sincerely believed the deaths of so many innocent Iraqis were horrific and I am sure that is why he is retiring.

[peacetalksforall]

4. Because the U.S. seemed to have taken over Qatar and since

al Jazeera is based in Qatar and because of some things I saw coming out of al Jazeera regarding Bin Laden, I was forming the opinion that the country and the paper had been taken over by our military in a propaganda and communication way. After seeing the film, I no longer believe al-Jazeera is a tool of our military.

I thought it was an excellent documentary. It was amazing to follow the transformation of the Lt.

A person follow the news and never ever gets all the ramifications - I remember the questions raised about our bombing of the hotel that housed the ME journalists. I had no idea what it meant to these people. And how predatory the timing was.

The death of one of the key journalist in the story was an incredible documentation of this stupid war.