the revolution will be accompanied with somber voiceover

[cris]

I remember seeing a brief blurb for Control Room in a schedule for the Harvard Film Archives last month, and had my interest piqued. A documentary on al-Jazeera's coverage of the Iraq war, Control Room was pitched as this counterbalance to the image popularized in America of a biased pulpit for terrorist sympathizers. I wanted to go see it but

Comments

[brigid]

i've had the Truth Uncovered DVD for like, 3 months now
do you want to borrow it?

[brigid]

also, it is very slow and pretty short. i don't really know if it makes for good group watching material, because it didn't really provoke much discussion between me and ethan, though it's totally possible i'm so cynical i dreamt up everything it had to say

[brigid]

unless this is a different truth?

[cris]

Actually, the DVD I was interested in getting was Outfoxed, the insider account of Fox News. Vulgarlad's link was to a WMV of the entire Truth documentary. And I agree that, to those of us who've been following all of the twists and turns in the "WMD as casus belli" story, it just affirms what we already expected.

That's the main reason why I just sort of ignored Truth when I first read about it on Metafilter. However, except for magazine profiles on Ruport Murdoch, I'm less familiar with the inner machinations of FoxNews, which is why I want to get the DVD. Though, I do like rojagato's idea of doing a double-feature. It could also be paired up with Frontline's Truth War and Consequences which is a little slicker and wider in context.

[alice_ayers]

very well written. (that is all)

[rojagato]

"if I get the DVD, will folks want to come over watch it?"

Hells, yeah. Maybe a double feature with The Truth Uncovered?

The day after we saw Control Room, I happened on a CNN feature about Al Arabiya, which also is staffed by former BBC'ers, but heavily financed by Dubai, and man, it shows. Their control room looked like the something out of Babylon Five--all chrome and carpet and Aeron chairs and recessed monitors--a far cry from the exposed rackmounts and crowded desks of Jazeera's Qatar offices.

I was so distracted by the physical differences (the executive producer's suit actually fit him), that all I really came away with was that Al Arabiya was an oil-financed PBS to Jazeera's early-stage CNN. I did notice though, when the CNN reporter grilled the EP on scope of coverage, point of view, and their finding favor with the Bush Administration, that very polished gentleman kept looking away while he talked.

[cris]

excellent, I'll count you in.

The one thing I kinda hoped to see was some allusion to the relationship between al-Jazeera and the Qatari government, who also funds the station. I'm curious about what's motivating them. Everything I've read about Emir Hamad bin Khalifa makes him sound like a pretty with-it sort of guy. Ends state censorship, recruits a bunch of unemployed BBC guys to form al-Jaz, pisses off half the Gulf in one week. Is he really that cool or is he planning on using al-Jazeera to make everyone else look bad?

[rojagato]

Maybe Hamad just wants to be Ted Turner. Let's remember how much CNN pissed off the Reagan and Bush I administrations with their coverage of the "strategic redeployment" from Beirut and ground zero views of what the bombings of Iraq were really doing. And CNN did it with Arab stringers, AUB and AUC grads with videocams and Kalashnikovs strapped over their shoulders.

[wsmith]

I'd come to see this if you get the DVD

[fusion_waste]

i'm down with watching the inside truth on a shiny silver disk