Jehane Noujaim's film is a surprisingly balanced documentary about the first days of the Iraq war, focusing on the reporting efforts of Al Jazeera, the Fox News of the Arab world. The pro-Arab bias exhibited is so pervasive that journalists whom Saddam Hussein would have gladly executed find themselves acting as his apologists, and yet producer Samir Khader freely admits he dreams of getting a job with Fox News, exchanging one form of propaganda for another.
Reporter Hassan Ibrahim is the star, a beefy man who, despite being vocally opposed to the war, is able to have intelligent, meaningful conversations with U.S. Marine media spokesman Lt. Josh Rushing, and tell fellow Arabs that sometimes when a water main breaks in Damascus, it's their own ineptitude to blame, not Israel's evil conspiracy (it likely helps that his wife lives in Jerusalem).
The documentary comes to an emotional climax with the death of journalist Tariq Ayoub on the roof of Al Jazeera's Baghdad bureau, during U.S. aerial strikes, uniting reporters from around the world. More than Fahrenheit 9/11, this is the film to see for a fuller grasp of the war.