As a Canadian, this didn't have the same impact as an 'insider' view might have to Americans, but I did enjoy how it chose a specific topic and mostly stuck to it, given the footage they had. Sure there was an agenda, but it was mostly about information, and how it is processed, filtered, and transmitted, which is always worth a look into.

one of the first documentaries i saw and actually understood really shocking stuff

Excellent in its message, but I wouldn't say it is extremely effective as a documentary. It allows the viewer only a very few moments of insight and you learn everything the film is going to say in the first 20 minutes. Overall- good but not great.

A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Al-Jazeera during the (latest) Iraqi war. It shines a new light on some moments I took for granted, and all in all this documentary delivers a pretty balanced account of media coverage during wartime. Prepare for some painful and depressing moments, seeing wounded kids in hospitals always fills me with impotent rage.

Very interesting doc. Quite depressing and infuriating to watch though

"The film's focused portrayal of Al-Jazeera clashes with its more haphazard grouping of American media outlets." - Keith Uhlich

Control Room provides an invaluable look at the Arab perspective of the War on Iraq, and reveals the struggle for objectivity that both Al-Jareeza and American media confront. Perhaps it's not even a struggle for objectivity, but an acknowledgement that all reporting is influenced by one's culture and one's responsibility to the audience.

Good look at how skewed our views can be because of a few men in a CONTROL ROOM.

An excellent documentary which provides a wealth of information on the Al Jazeera news station in Iraq. I learned a lot about something I new relatively little about. I especially enjoyed about how much it attempted to provide a neutral point of view on the matter while pointing out the flaws in both the American and Arab news.

What makes Control Room resonate so brilliantly is that it doesn't try to portray the Al Jazeera as the supreme example of impartiality in the news but instead demonstrates the questionability of objectivity's validity in any source of media. Not only does Noujaim reveal our narrow understanding of the Arab news network but she puts some of the most iconic images of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the Western journalism that brought them to us, into question. Sticky stuff.

Intriguing documentary about al-Jazeera

Hopefully will become the definitive Iraq-era classic doc.