The main theory of the documentary was explained clearly, and I gathered that the documentary centered on the Qatar television news network Al Jazeera and its conflicts with the United States Central Command concerning Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Iraq war. The pacing of the broadcast was perfect. Kelly was neither too fast nor too slow. The volume could have been a little bit louder, and sometimes the ends of her sentences were a little too quiet and I was unable to understand them. Kelly seemed very prepared, in fact it seemed as though she had written out everything she was going to say beforehand, and so it seemed like she was reading from a script rather than having a more conversational tone. However, she knew what she was talking about, she was very informed and confident, and because of her notes, she never fumbled on words or got sidetracked with a tangent. She got through all of the information in a timely fashion, which impressed me as the documentary seemed to be rather complicated. One of Kelly’s main points was concerning the bombing of the Al Jazeera headquarters in Baghdad of April 8th 2003. The United States bombed the Al Jazeera headquarters on this date, and it killed one Al Jazeera reporter and injured another. The United States then apologized for the death and destruction, but said that the Baghdad headquarters was never mean to be a target. However, reporters had previously been warned to stay away from Baghdad, suggesting that conflict between the United States and the Baghdad headquarters of Al Jazeera was not completely foreign. Another main point was just more generally about the conflict between Al Jazeera and the United States Central Command. The Bush Administration condemned Al Jazeera for a number of reasons, citing their unprofessionalism and the inappropriate footage they showed. Then, when Al Jazeera showed footage of prisoners of war, it violated the Geneva Convention agreements. The Bush administration condemned Al Jazeera for this reason, but Al Jazeera said that the Bush Administration was being hypocritical because of their inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay detention center which also violated the Geneva Convention agreements. Kelly connected this to class by saying that there were several issues here concerning the first amendment rights to freedom of the press (for Al Jazeera), even though these rights do not apply in Iraq. The film did sound interesting. I do not know as much about the war as I probably should, and watching this documentary would probably give me a pretty good education. I also think that coming at the war from the media’s perspective is very interesting, and this angle would probably interest me more than a formal documentary about the war and its origins and such. Kelly said that one of the weaknesses was that the director, and Egyptian-American man, seemed more interested in portraying Al Jazeera’s side of the story than he did the United States Central Command. Kelly said that interview with United States military officials were still included, but that there was much more time given to portraying Al Jazeera than the United States Central Command.
The main theory of the documentary was explained clearly, and I gathered that the documentary centered on the Qatar television news network Al Jazeera and its conflicts with the United States Central Command concerning Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Iraq war.
ReplyDeleteThe pacing of the broadcast was perfect. Kelly was neither too fast nor too slow. The volume could have been a little bit louder, and sometimes the ends of her sentences were a little too quiet and I was unable to understand them. Kelly seemed very prepared, in fact it seemed as though she had written out everything she was going to say beforehand, and so it seemed like she was reading from a script rather than having a more conversational tone. However, she knew what she was talking about, she was very informed and confident, and because of her notes, she never fumbled on words or got sidetracked with a tangent. She got through all of the information in a timely fashion, which impressed me as the documentary seemed to be rather complicated.
One of Kelly’s main points was concerning the bombing of the Al Jazeera headquarters in Baghdad of April 8th 2003. The United States bombed the Al Jazeera headquarters on this date, and it killed one Al Jazeera reporter and injured another. The United States then apologized for the death and destruction, but said that the Baghdad headquarters was never mean to be a target. However, reporters had previously been warned to stay away from Baghdad, suggesting that conflict between the United States and the Baghdad headquarters of Al Jazeera was not completely foreign. Another main point was just more generally about the conflict between Al Jazeera and the United States Central Command. The Bush Administration condemned Al Jazeera for a number of reasons, citing their unprofessionalism and the inappropriate footage they showed. Then, when Al Jazeera showed footage of prisoners of war, it violated the Geneva Convention agreements. The Bush administration condemned Al Jazeera for this reason, but Al Jazeera said that the Bush Administration was being hypocritical because of their inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay detention center which also violated the Geneva Convention agreements. Kelly connected this to class by saying that there were several issues here concerning the first amendment rights to freedom of the press (for Al Jazeera), even though these rights do not apply in Iraq.
The film did sound interesting. I do not know as much about the war as I probably should, and watching this documentary would probably give me a pretty good education. I also think that coming at the war from the media’s perspective is very interesting, and this angle would probably interest me more than a formal documentary about the war and its origins and such. Kelly said that one of the weaknesses was that the director, and Egyptian-American man, seemed more interested in portraying Al Jazeera’s side of the story than he did the United States Central Command. Kelly said that interview with United States military officials were still included, but that there was much more time given to portraying Al Jazeera than the United States Central Command.