Control Room

Control Room, by Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com), an award-winning Arab-American filmmaker who has lived within and embraced both worlds, provides an opportunity to re-examine what is perhaps the most pressing question of international relations today: “is America radicalizing or stabilizing the Arab world?”

Without miring itself in shadowy conspiracy theories, Control Room provides a balanced view of Al-Jazeera’s presentation of the second Iraq war to their worldwide Arab audience, and in so doing calls into question many of the prevailing images and positions offered up by the U.S. news media.

Control Room’sview inside Al-Jazeera-a network branded “Osama Bin-Laden’s mouthpiece” and subject of intense criticism from U.S. administration officials for showing images of Iraqi casualties and American POWs that American viewers never saw-suggests that its views on news reportage might actually be more in tune with democratic ideals than those of its Western counterparts.