Control Room is a 2004 documentary film directed by Jehane Noujaim, about Al Jazeera and its relations with the US Central Command (CENTCOM), as well as the other news organizations that covered the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Paradoxically, another clip shows Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, the Iraqi Minister of Information, accusing the television organization of transmitting American propaganda.

Early in the movie, press officer Lt. Rushing remarks that Al Jazeera's bias leads it to focus exclusively on American tanks and Iraqi casualties, yet he later confides that agencies such as Fox News also appear to hand-pick their material, and he sees what both sides leave out.

Rushing laments about Al Jazeera's bias, and speculates why the network shows no photos of alleged Iraqi military atrocities, such as soldiers holding families hostage.

In an effort to rectify past mishandling of media personnel during wartime and to garner support for the Iraq war, the Pentagon introduced a new journalist embedding policy.

The media embed ground rules introduced in March 2003 stated "Our ultimate strategic success in bringing peace and security to this region will come in our long-term commitment to supporting our democratic ideals.

[citation needed] The aftermath of the attack saw a number of allegations: Al Jazeera claimed to have sent the Pentagon details of their staff's position via GPS co-ordinates, as did several other news networks.

At the time, sources from the BBC noted with alarm that "the Pentagon did not seem to pay heed to information they had been given by Al-Jazeera and every other TV organization based in [Baghdad].

"[6] The overwhelming majority of opinion amongst the Arabic media seems to be that the US acted in order to prevent the reporting of war crimes perpetrated by American personnel;[7] the attack on Al Jazeera was thus deliberate, a theory which seems to have support from Robert Fisk.

[11] Although unable to provide much support, personally, Jassem suggested that Noujaim and Salama search Al Jazeera's cafeteria for anyone that they might want to follow.

There, Noujaim and Salama discovered both Samir Khader and Hassan Ibrahim, not only central characters to the film but also crucial to gaining the crew access into Al Jazeera.

Noujaim explains, "We also met Hassan in the cafeteria over many cups of coffee and many cigarettes, and he was really the person that was responsible for getting us such amazing access to Al Jazeera.

[12] Despite having a small production, the lack of lighting or formal setup, granted extra flexibility, allowing Noujaim to follow the pace of the Al Jazeera newsroom and focus more on her subjects.

[13] Noujaim says she wanted to be at the center of news creation and make a film on the broader perceptions of the war, a reason why she headed to [Al Jazeera]'s headquarters in Doha, which was barely 15 miles away from the Central Command, the military base of the United States.

Before leaving for Cairo, when Noujaim called her agents in Hollywood, she was told this was the worst idea ever "since after 9/11 people did not want to watch war, but things that were comforting to them.

[16] Control Room is a Cinéma vérité film which attempts to present an un-narrated behind-the-scenes focus on the functioning of Al-Jazeera and of the US Central Command during the Iraq War.

The film, in its style, recalls The War Room, a cinema vérité documentary by Noujaim's mentors Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker, which had a similar behind the scene focus on media spinning during Bill Clinton's campaign of 1992.