by SARAH ROWLAND

Lt. Josh Rushing is an American dreamboat. He's got the clear blue eyes of a Hollywood movie star, the hulking build of an Oklahoma farm boy and the antiquated charm of the southern gent. But he's not just a pretty face in pressed camouflage. As a CentCom press officer who acts as a media liaison, this golden boy stands out as one of the most compelling characters in Control Room, a revealing documentary that examines the illusion of objectivity in news creation during the U.S.-led war on Iraq. But Rushing's story almost didn't get told.

In fact, the movie almost didn't get made. New York-based director Jehane Noujaim wanted to make a behind-the-scenes film about Al-Jazeera, the only Arab news network in the Middle East that isn't state controlled. However, getting access into the Qatar-based TV network - which has been condemned by both Bush and several Arab leaders - proved nearly impossible. She and her producer Hani Salama started a letter-writing campaign three months leading up to America's decision to "liberate" the people of Iraq. Getting nowhere with written requests, they decided to head to the tiny country that borders Saudi Arabia to present their case in person. But they were kept at bay in the guards room for a week before the general manager finally broke it to them that they could only get backstage after the war.

"I was thinking, how the hell am I gonna make a film when I can't even go into the newsroom," says Noujaim, who was convinced that her award-winning documentary - which effectively demonstrates how a single news item, like the toppling of the Saddam statue in Baghdad, can be spun several different ways - would only work if she followed the reporters during wartime. "We were very depressed when they told us that, so we went to the cafeteria and started drinking lots of coffee and smoking lots of cigarettes."

Al-Jazeera to the rescue

They were eventually granted partial access through the help of Hassan Ibrahim, a sympathetic Al-Jazeera reporter who happened to be hanging out at the caf that day. But within 10 days of shooting unobtrusively without lights, Noujaim's crew managed to inch its way into the control room.

As well as filming inside the station that feeds news to 40-million viewers, a big chunk of the film takes place at Central Command, the headquarters for the U.S. military that hosts an international media centre. Enter Rushing.

"I met him and thought, ‘Is this guy for real?'" recalls Noujaim. "He seems like everything that you want America to be representing: someone who's really open, trying to make the military open to journalists and trying to understand the other point of view. I would say to myself, ‘My God, I'm really taken in by this guy. Am I being spun as well in a very sophisticated way or is he really genuine?'"

Sophisticated is probably not the most apt description of Rushing at the beginning of the film, when the Lieutenant whips out some real zingers. "Yeah, we bombed the hell out of Baghdad but we used precision bombs," Rushing says, without a hint of irony, explaining that they could have used cheaper weapons.

In contrast to Rushing's apple pie ignorance, the two main Al-Jazeera protagonists, Ibrahim and senior producer Sameer Khader, are sharp-witted, chain-smoking cynics. But their cocky attitude and sarcastic wit were soon replaced by disgust and mournful tears on Day 20 of the war, when the U.S. forgot to use those precision bombs that Rushing was talking about. Several media outlets were attacked, resulting in the death of an Al-Jazeera correspondent.

"I really felt the blow to them," says Noujaim about the journalists working at what many consider the CNN of the Arab world. "They really did feel silenced."

Too sensitive for the Corps

Throughout the film, something peculiar starts happening to Rushing. He becomes painfully aware that the sight of dismembered children sort of takes the fun out of liberating a nation. In one scene, he reveals with utter bewilderment that it makes him "hate war."

"He went on to describe this 10-year-old kid that he saw with his head blown off and he said, ‘You, know, my son is 10 years old and this could have been him,'" recalls Noujaim, about an off-camera conversation with Rushing. "I thought that if he was ready to reveal that to us, he was someone to keep following, because he was being so sincere about how he was feeling."

According to Noujaim, his fellow press officers would occasionally remind Rushing to check his badge to remember what side he's on. Word of his interaction with Al-Jazeera personnel and sympathetic attitude toward the Iraqi people eventually climbed the chain of command.

"I might have blown it," admits Noujaim, referring to an interview she did for MSNBC after her film was finished, where she revealed Rushing's sensitive side. "He had previously done some kind of low-key interviews and then, when my MSNBC interview came out, he gave me a call later that day and said, ‘I got a call from the General.'" Rushing has been silenced from talking about the movie as long as he's an enlisted man.

"It doesn't make any sense," Noujaim says about Rushing, who is planning on leaving the Marine Corps after 15 years of service to try his luck in Hollywood. "He's been given great accolades by all of the press as someone that we should want in the military. He's the best recruiting tool that the marines could ask for. He was asked to be interviewed on networks and shows that Marines just don't have access to, like NPR and Democracy Now!. He was excited to do them probably in the same way he was enthusiastic to talk to the Arab press or the French press. I think it's really disappointed him that he hasn't been able to speak and he's been in the Marines most of his life. He's leaving October 8th. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say then."

Control Room opens Friday, Aug. 6

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