1. Is it more realistic to side with the liberals in seeing the government's role in media regulation as one of protecting the public against the domination of the private sector (as well as the Fairness Doctrine), or with the conservatives, who see this as "government meddling in the free market"?
The real question seems to be the difference between "protection" and the concept of masking the negative aspects of war in order to obtain or retain war supporters.
2. An initial pro-regulatory position was supported by the enactment of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) that outlawed the transmission of sexually explicit and other indecent material on the internet. However, before the year was up, free speech activists had sued, and the courts ruled the CDA to be unconstitutional.
Although the CDA is DEFUNCT, you can still see the presence of its general concepts in the U.S. media. Al-Jazeera seems to follow a completely different set of guidelines. You can see that they don't have the pressure to censor their material. In a way, Al-Jazeera conveys more truths than the U.S. media.
3. The idea of objectivity—separating facts from values—is unobtainable, but it is a valuable goal.
In "Control Room" it seems as if Al-Jezeera attempts to achieve objectivity with more success than the United States. Is it possible that the fact that Al-Jazeera uses less censoring than the United States, has to do with their objectivity-heavy morals?
4. Media companies follow the “hit” formula even if the outcome is not successful at all times.
page 123: "Political forces, particularly government regulations, also play a significant role in shaping the environment within which media organizations operate....The media sometimes ignore, reinterpret, challenge, or preempt regulations."
This kind of connects to Al Jazeera being called the mouth piece of Osama Bin Laden by the U.S. As we see in the movie, this is not true. Al Jazeera is constantly challenging and ignoring political/powerful figures and displaying what they want, how they want to.
