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Ear to the Ground

The ‘Path’ to a Distorted 9/11

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Posted on Sep 7, 2006
Path to 9/11
Courtesy ABC

Several progressive bloggers have set up an online clearinghouse dedicated to exposing the fabrications in ABC/Disney’s upcoming miniseries “The Path to 9/11.” It urges ABC/Disney to scrub the film of outright falsehoods, or else shelve the film completely.

UPDATE # 1:

  • ABC makes some minor changes to the film.
  • Watch security author James Bamford tell MSNBC that an FBI officer consulting on the film quit half way through because the filmmakers were making things up.

  • Author Glenn Greenwald reminds us that Bill O’Reilly and his ilk got CBS to cancel “The Reagans” because it contained fictionalized history –- but conservatives seem to be OK with the fictionalized history in this movie.
  • Bill Clinton, through his lawyer, blasts the film’s implication that Clinton was too busy with the Lewinsky scandal to concentrate on the pursuit of Bin Laden (click here for the full text of the letter). (Unlike Bush, who was so disturbed by the immediate news of the 9/11 attacks that he spent seven minutes reading “My Pet Goat” to a room full of schoolchildren.)
  • Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger warn ABC brass that the film grossly misrepresents their actions in the hunt for Bin Laden.
  • John at AMERICAblog (who has been doing a bang-up job chronicling this growing media scandal) sees in the above article an admission by ABC that it simply made up (ad-libbed) a scene depicting Sandy Berger as the man who effectively stopped the CIA from taking out Bin Laden.

    John: “YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT SEPTEMBER 11, YOU FREAKS. You people sent this movie to 100,000 school teachers around the country and told them to show it to their kids. And now you’re admitting you just made stuff up, and that’s somehow okay?”

  • Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz pens a front-page column that finds more factual errors in the film.
  • John at AMERICAblog (again) uses the above article to declare that the “tide has turned” and that “this is now a full-fledged public relations disaster for Disney.”
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    By Tara, September 9, 2006 at 8:43 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    hmmm...a “documentary”, they say?  Blaming Clinton for 9/11 when the most pressing issue now is how things have been handled AFTER 9/11… and then run Bush’s speech in the middle of the second half of the movie?  Is someone hoping we’ll forget the last 5 years?

    Report this

    By WhatonearthisNext, September 8, 2006 at 5:39 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Hmmm If I remember correctly, this is the network that declined to show Fahrenheit 9/11 because it contained what they claimed as politically biased inaccuracies? Good Grief, The bulk of Moore’s film has proved to be reasonably accurate, much more so than what I am hearing about this latest Repugnant Party Lie/contortion of truth/ and fantasy.

    Report this

    By Harold Steele, September 8, 2006 at 10:23 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    So it turns out, after all these years, that Mickey Mouse is a card-carrying REPUBLICAN?

    Oh, jeez....

    Report this

    By Michael U., September 8, 2006 at 9:08 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Since 9/11 we have learned very little regarding events before or after the tragedy.  Siting “national security” most of the known information has been hidden from the public. The investigation by the Kean Commission whitewashed the events and only further muddied the water leaving a questioning public in the dark. 
    This film, amazingly, with Mr. Kean himself as advisor, ups the ante yet again.  By releasing this film ABC/Disney has decided that their version of events is good enough for the American people and American history.  Most of the viewers of the film will not be aware of its inaccuracies, its outright lies and its loyalty to the Bush/Cheney regime.
    To take advantage of all of our feelings and memories of that day and to play propaganda games with the American souls lost is a disgrace.

    Report this

    By gungorkaya, September 8, 2006 at 7:58 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    ABC is sold out to the highest bidder. I wonder what they are going to the after the elections. It seems to me that they have a puppet master behind the curtain, pulling all their ignorant mind from reality to fantasy.
    They are a human trash and should not be allowed to walk around freely. They deserve to be charged with treason.

    Report this

    By kevin99999, September 8, 2006 at 6:27 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    The distortion of facts in this so called docu-drama is not accidental but rather intentional in an effort by the ABC to prop up the electoral propsects of GOP. The corporate media is constantly creating stories or neglecting or distorting stories to push its corporate and rightwing agenda. This is no exception.

    Report this

    By ron roston, September 7, 2006 at 8:18 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    Let’s have a list of ABC’s major advertisers, especially any sponsoring this fabricated hit piece.  I, for one, want to know who I won’t patronize.  If we progressives are willing to react as directly as our rightest antagonists, the media will have to begin moving towards the truth.

    ron roston

    Report this

    By Kevo, September 7, 2006 at 7:29 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    I wonder if those folks over at ABC have discovered yet that it is difficult to run around when their pants are down around their ankles?  ABC pantsed itself on this one!  I will not watch or recommend watching any program on ABC if it indeed goes ahead and airs such a slockudrama on a most poignant and prolific event in our history.  Playing with the facts on such a cultural changing event as 9/11 is not only unconscionable, it is filthy.

    Yes, Oprah, this means you! I am awaiting a statement from you, Oprah.  What do you think on this most relevant question:  Does the station you are contracted with have a pass when it comes to historical accuracy?

    Oh, and Disney, let the boycott begin.  I and everyone I know and love don’t need no stinking entertainment from you.  I will personally work to put a dent in your gate receipts.  -Kevo

    Report this

    By John Legry, September 7, 2006 at 6:15 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    The Disney people have a long history of factual distortion. Note Walt’s nature film in which “lemmings run over a cliff;” lemmings don’t actually do that, and the “lemmings” were dyed powder puffs shot from a cannon for the purposes of filming a non-scientific non-fact as scientific fact!

    Over the years the corporation has become increasingly “embedded” within the narrow rightwing republican business-communications elite. Their 911 fantasy lacks only a chorus line of rich diamond-studded elephants dancing in tutus. Disney - read Iger’s - philosophy is “embedded” in a moribund ideology guaranteed to swindle, confuse, and ultimately ruin its consumers. Caveat Emptor. Let the buyer beware.

    Report this

    By Jon B, September 7, 2006 at 1:59 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    It is wrong to force propagation and misleading information down the throats of our children. 9/11 is american history. History should be taught by factual presentation, not Goebel style.

    Report this

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