This great documentary follows the men and women who work for Al Jazeera, a news station that broadcasts to the middle eastern countries. Around the time 9/11 took place I had first heard of Al Jazeera, and I had heard from people that it was a propagandist tool for terrorist. I never questioned this until seeing this documentary. I think a lot of people in America think this because we've been told that by our leaders. After watching the documentary I now know that this is simply not the case. Are they completely objective; I wouldn't say that. At the time the doc was filmed, the war in Iraq had just started, many of those who work for Al-Jazeera are Iraqi, or muslim, and their people were being killed by our bombs, so its hard to remain objective when you see this. Also one of the workers for Al-Jazeera was killed by a US bomb. I wouldn't say they were anti-American or hated Americans, one of the lead journalist for Al-Jazeera said "I believe in the constitution, and I believe in the American People." These people were simply against the war, and they're reports echoed that.
They were heavily criticized as being propaganda for the enemy because of 1) when bombs killed innocent lives they showed this, and they were accused of fabricating these shots, 2) they aired footage of killed American troops, and american POWs. Americans may not be used to seeing these horrible sites but this is war and they are showing it in all of its horribleness I have to say that the journalist who work for Al-Jazeera seemed to not harbor anti-American feelings and this is shown in several instances. Many of the other networks that have offices at CENT COM, commented on the Al Jazeera staff as being nice people and they are seen socializing with each other. Also one of Al-Jazeera's journalists' had a great relationship with Josh Rushing, the media liazon at CENT COM. Rushing is my favorite figure in the entire film. He is what I believe a true patriot, someone who loves his country and is brave enough to serve, but also brave enough to show that the American perspective is not the only one that matters. He a tremendously sympathetic guy, and its interesting to note that he now works for Al Jazeera, the english version. All in all, the film does a great job of showing that Al Jazeera is not the monster Americans thing it is, it is biased, but you show me a news station that is not biased, and don't tell me Fox News.
If you liked Josh Rushing too follow this link, he was on the daily show about 2 years ago.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-july-16-2007/josh-rushing
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I agree that people think that their station is full of propaganda. but the truth is U.S. probably has more propaganda than anyone. The U.S. tries to make it look like as if all Iraq people hate Americans. I remember when they kept showing on the news some people in Iraq burning the U.S. flag and the face of Bush, they never show how we do have support from the Iraq people not just the new government. We can learn something from their station.
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