Saw this documentary at the Film Festival in Edinburgh prior to its release on British TV. If you are interested in the war reporting on Iraq and Al Jezeera at all, see this movie by top director of Startup.com. Very upsetting stuff but also gets at the heart of the difficulty of 'objective' reporting (even when there is a will to be objective, which of course there isn't always).
One of the producers (who works for the Beeb) was at the EIFF screening and said how Fox and various US news channels are now issuing retractions about their bias during the war. Whilst not all the Al Jezeera reporters admit to being capable of avoiding bias, most of them and the channel's producers seem very committed to truth in reporting.
The programme also casts doubt on several 'official' U.S. stories that are no longer of major interest but were accepted as gospel at the time - a bridge they had taken on a river that has no bridges - the 'Iraqi' supporters who marched and toppled the statue of Saddam - were they brought in by the U.S. from outside? Iraqis suggest they can recognise other Iraqis and these were neither Iraqis nor had they Iraqi accents. The shooting of the Iraqi news reporter and the simultaneous 'accidental' strikes on three news services (inc Al Jezeera) shortly before this publicity coup are particularly harrowing.
One of the producers (who works for the Beeb) was at the EIFF screening and said how Fox and various US news channels are now issuing retractions about their bias during the war. Whilst not all the Al Jezeera reporters admit to being capable of avoiding bias, most of them and the channel's producers seem very committed to truth in reporting.
The programme also casts doubt on several 'official' U.S. stories that are no longer of major interest but were accepted as gospel at the time - a bridge they had taken on a river that has no bridges - the 'Iraqi' supporters who marched and toppled the statue of Saddam - were they brought in by the U.S. from outside? Iraqis suggest they can recognise other Iraqis and these were neither Iraqis nor had they Iraqi accents. The shooting of the Iraqi news reporter and the simultaneous 'accidental' strikes on three news services (inc Al Jezeera) shortly before this publicity coup are particularly harrowing.