The War's Dark Side: Filling in the Blanks

http://nytimes.com/2004/05/21/arts/television/21NOTE.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=print&position=

By now, those photographs of Americans abusing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison have sunk in. But how many shocking images have we not seen after more than a year of war? Two striking documentaries about journalists in Iraq suggest how rarely the harshest images — and sometimes the unwelcome news — have penetrated American newscasts until now.

In "Control Room" (opening today in Manhattan), an intelligent and eloquent behind-the-scenes look at the Arab news channel Al Jazeera, we see civilian victims of a bombing in northern Iraq, their corpses lined up on the ground and piled in a truck. In "War Feels Like War" (on PBS in July), the camera follows international reporters not embedded with the military, and witnesses American soldiers being shot at by fedayeen in Baghdad. After the gunfire stops, a Polish journalist files a radio report that says, "It doesn't look good," adding that a Marine has told him "too many people still have weapons."

These films suggest how vital it is to see beyond our familiar perspectives; yet even a glance at television reveals that viewers are at the mercy of the homogenized news we're handed. Maybe the best thing to do is triangulate, piecing together news from alternative sources like these to get a fuller picture.

So, like, what"s war's BRIGHT side?

Smiling cable news droids wearing flag pins, parades, Freeper flag waving, yellow ribbons, armchair heroism, chickenhawk bloggers egging other people on to die for them, way cool 'splosions on teevee...all of the fake bullshit that isn't actually war. That's the bright side of war.