these are my thoughts, in order:

1. the american media makes me sick
2. american's make me vomit into my mouth.
3. tuesday's gonna be a bit rough on ol' chase.
4. propaganda really works.
5. btw, good luck josh.

Great, great doc! It really effected me - puts phrases like "100,000 Iraqis have been killed during Bush's invasion" into perspective.

I have have no idea what 'Control Room' is, but look at this quote from the US Commander of the Al Anbar province.

"When we are told to go, we will go. When we do go, we'll whack them"

I bet that guy wanks off to 'Patton - The Movie'.

Here's an other quote from our friends in the military.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When his company got word they were headed to Iraq to help with stability and support efforts, they were told they'd be there to "keep the peace, win hearts and minds."

Not exactly what they had in mind.

"We're a totally different mentality. We're not about waving and smiling. We're the shock troops. We go in to destroy everything in sight."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope he gets shot, shits his pants, cries for his mama and then dies in the dust like the total fuckwitted cunt he is.

I didn't really dig Control Room that much. Was the point to make Al JAzeera seem much better than American media outlets? Because if it was, I saw Al Jazeera as being as fair and objective as Fox News.

Then again, I expect journalists to be robotic and emotionless, which might be an unreasonable expectation.

Chase's avatar is awesome. Didn't know if that had been mentioned in another thread.

As for Control Room, it was great. It didn't even attempt to portray Al Jazeera as being superior to all American media, in fact, they compared themselves to Fox News. The film really did an excellent job of highlighting the misunderstandings and clashes between Arab and American nationalism. It left out a lot of things, but much of that has happened after the time period the film covers.

Keep in mind that a lot of things about Al Jazeera are pretty scary - they're the first ones to air pretty much any terrorist videotape. They never reveal the source for them. And yet they also give airtime - probably much more genuine in spirit than the Fox equivalent - to Americans and others with opposing viewpoints. If Control Room is to be believed, they'll show pretty much anything as long as they believe it has some credibility. Do they really give equal space to both sides? Of course not, but they don't rally people to war like Fox. On the other hand, they may be encouraging terrorist activities such as the bedeadings by practically guaranteeing them airtime. It's an interesting situation, and it's too simplistic to label Al Jazeera as purveyors of "enemy propaganda" as Rumsfeld and Co. like to do.

In short, no.

It was simply a doc about some journalists who happen to broadcast out of the middle east. It showed them as well-educated professionals with a strong a code of ethics behind their decisions. I thought most of the American media came across equally well (hell, even the US army spokesman seemed like a decent guy), which is what gave the film its power - I saw journalists just trying to do their jobs, trying to present the facts while getting slammed and lied to by government bureaucracies from both sides - and it humanized the Iraqis in a way I'd never seen before.

I think the thread about this documentary in the CMJ board had a few people posting about how the US spokesperson was an idiot. When I myself saw it and didn't see him as being an idiot at all, it just confused me a bit. Are people coming into the theaters with such a bias against their own country that they call perfectly reasonable and intelligent people idiotic?

But I did find it quite informative. Had I not had the feeling that they were glorifying the network, I would have enjoyed it more.

yes, arguably the funniest 7 minutes in the last five years. i have a cool .gif from rejected (the little cloud guys dnacing) but i can't figure out how to link it to my signature.

c.