Control Room showed the human cost of Iraq war both to and of the Iraqi people, and to and of the American soldiers. This was the most speculator part of the film. Some of the most elusive footage, interviews and the daily working of the media at the site of conflict were probably never seen before. Director Jehane Noujaim navigation of the mediascape at the war torn Iraq, Al Jazeera’s newsroom and the Production Control Room, the actual site of news production and broadcasting, while the workers were covering the live images of the bombing of Iraq by the American and the Coalition Army was deeply focused on the realities and power of media. At the same time it also demonstrated how media can be used and abused for political purposes. Control Room shows the story of Al Jazeera’s, the Qatar based news-channel that showed the images , sound and texts of the war to the people. Such images were most profound for the American people and indeed most threatening for the US government under Bush administration. Wounded American soldiers, dying and bleeding Marines and all of such images that showed Americans being hurt was strategically hidden from the Bush administration from its people, to justify the War on civilian Iraq as a war for Liberation of Iraqi people and War by Americans as they stand for the “need of the hour” .Control Room breaks many myths that Bush Administration created through media. Most blatant amongst those were through images of Iraqi civilian casualties which were caused by American troops, attack on media personnel, and wounded American soldiers. Even more blatant was the story of Josh Rushing who was heading the Media unit of the Central Command and spoke eloquently in the film to show his support of the US and the coalition troops and his true belief that Iraq was a potential threat. Throughout the film, the US Marine was advocating the US and coalition of its action with his frank and candid interview with a former BBC employee and presently Al Jazeera's, Hassan Ibrahim. However, according to Josh’s web site (http://joshrushing.com/Bio.html) and other online resources, Pentagon ordered Josh not to give any more interviews. Josh left the US army and according to his web site he now works with Al-Jazeera English. He also wrote a book called “Mission Al-Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World”
In the story of Josh, both as we see him in Control Room and his subsequent decision to leave the US army and join Al Jazeera, what is emphasized is that no news is complete until we see what is shown to us in the light of what is not shown to us. Control Room shows what we rarely see in the so called news channels who not only shows fiction as facts but even construct news to further the political agendas and maintain status-quo. Control Room reveals how this happens. As we see the Al Jazeera’s images of wounded soldiers and civilian’s casualties in Iraq, we hear George Bush preaching to the American public with soothing words, “I expect POWs to be treated humanely, just as we are treating the prisoners we have captured humanely”. Such juxtaposition of political rhetoric and the images of the ground realities instantly separates the chaff from the wheat for it audiences. It sharpens the images that the embedded journalism has created, that of the enslaved-media, in the hands of the establishment, and at the same time, as a senior producer of Al-Jazeera Samir Khader says while looking at the wounded civilians bodies covered by its channel, “I’m supposed to call this incitement? I call this true journalism, the only true journalism in the world” thus referring to a truthful-media characterized by courage and guts.
Samir’s strong sense of journalism with adherence to objectivity and balance is also reflected in a scene where he expresses his dissatisfaction towards the choice of the interviewee, an American who criticizes America for attacking Iraq only for oil, by a co worker, for the lack of balance. Samir is seen to be looking for balance while there is none as he himself seems to have confessed as he says “the only true journalism” in the above context. We see another example of an angry journalist, Hassan Ibrahim, when he hears Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accusing Al Jazeera's interviews with US POWs as violation of the Geneva Conventions. "What about Guantanamo Bay?" , "What about the Iraqi prisoners on American TV?", he repeatedly questions, thus sharpening the blurred lines of what we see in what is shown and what we not see in what is not shown.
Control Room uses such juxtaposition to make a very strong point; it shows how media is used as tool to sell a war to an audience, who can only see what is shown to them and will believe what is made believable to them. In its intense navigation of the site of war, conflict, media-workplaces and the testimonies of the media workers, Control Room makes a revelation-like impact to those who are glued to the beliefs of notions and fictions that are bombarded on them through the propagandist media controlled by the state. At the same time Control Room also shows the conflict of media workers as they perform their journalist duties under extreme conditions. The conflict of responsibility of work and responsibility of family is best reflected, yet again in the words of another Al Jazeera’s employee who says, “Despite everything he wishes for his children to have a future in the United States, and that he himself would work for Fox”.
In its revelation about the working of the media machinery,, focusing on centers run by the state-establishments such as the Central Command and at the same time channels such as Al Jazeera, Control Room tells a powerful story of a weapon called Media which is used to hide realities and construct non- realities by the former while at the same time, as a weapon used to reveal the truth and deconstruct non -realities through elusive and disturbing but factual audio-visual narratives.
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