media matters:
ABC apologists defend flawed miniseries as fake but true
ABC's heavily promoted miniseries, The Path to 9/11, billed as being "based solely and completely on the 9/11 Commission Report" has now proven to be a fraudulent attack on former President Bill Clinton and whitewash of President Bush's record.
Filmmakers have acknowledged basing the film in part on a book by a Bush administration PR official.
They acknowledge making up scenes.
The film's star, Harvey Keitel, said the film has factual errors that should be fixed.
Scholastic, the educational publishing company, has renounced all ties to the film and pulled a discussion guide tied to the movie it had distributed to accompany the film.
ABC News completely disavows the film.
Five members of the 9-11 Commission -- including one who served as a consultant to the film -- said The Path to 9/11 is flawed.
Nine prominent historians have asked ABC to cancel the broadcast.
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said of the film: "[W]hen you put somebody on the screen and say that's Madeleine Albright and she said this in a specific conversation and she never did say it, I think it's slanderous, I think it's defamatory and I think that ABC and Disney should be held to account."
Everyone, it seems, is getting in on the act. Conservative columnist John Podhoretz wrote that "[e]x-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's anger is unquestionably justified." Former Reagan administration cabinet secretary and right-wing pundit Bill Bennett said, "The Path to 9/11 is strewn with a lot of problems, and I think there were problems in the Clinton administration. But that's no reason to falsify the record, falsify conversations by either the president or his leading people. And, you know, it just shouldn't happen." Conservative author Richard Miniter said parts of the film are "based on an Internet myth" and have "no factual basis."
22 comments:
The whole lot of them should be taken to task for this. This is shameful!!
OK, so what did the 9/11 commission report actually say about the Clinton administration's failure to get Bin Ladin? See: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/09/clinton_i_wasnt_soft_on_bin_la.html
I had no plans on watching it, I still don't. Both admins should take a beating in this movie and deservedly so. And as much as I am deeply angered by the ex- Clintonites for their attempts to censor this work of art. I was equally ashamed when CBS was forced to yank the Reagan series because of wingnuts.
On the tragic flip side, people really are that gulliable to believe anything they see on television or read in the paper is accurate or true.
obob- i agree. all of the admins leading up to bush 2 had a hand in creating the al quaeda folks and their ilk. from carter to reagan to bush 1 to clinton. having said that- bush 2 has had 6 years to make the situation better and has not. i realize that part doesn't have anything to do with the movie- but re-writing history to suit your needs- well that smacks of dictatorship.
Hi everyone...informative as usual, Betmo.
I just check here for my daily news.
"i haven't watched any of the movies about 9/11. i think they are disingenuous and capitalizing on other folk's demise. ...stop with the reality tv mentality america- and show a bit of dignity."
I'm right with you Betmo, and well said as usual
It was a good post. The subject of 9-11 isn't good movie material at this time.
I disagree with using the word fascist incorrectly. You are not the only person that does.
I will post on the subject, of what is fascism. I'm explaining this everyday to someone. If I post on it, I could copy and paste on all the blogs, that use the term, without understanding.
I'm not picking on you, I'm teaching you, that it's important, to understand the enviroment. If you believe fascism is around the corner, it leads to tactics that are incorrect, coming from an incorrect evaluation.
see: http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm#p0
agreeing on not watching this or other 911 movies. how many years will it be before they show the truth?
ren- what do you consider this current environment? i would like to know so as to effectively promote planning. i am going to your link now.
History is written by the victors
And movies are written by those who want to tell their story.
Hollywood Westerns were about white european settlers conquering the wild west, and defeating savages.
They didn't often tell about the wilful decimation (slaughter) of buffalo to starve the indians, the brutality against natives to disposses them of their staple diet, buffalo,pastures and land, or the long slow painful march of shame to the indian reservations in arid wasteland.
Don'r expect 9/11 to be anything other than self-congratulatory hero worship.
No need to look at why some people might have been willing to commit such a barbaric act, or whether the act could have been prevented. But it was allowed to go ahead, (acceptable losses) to ratchet up the public support for a pre-planned military invasion of Iraq.
Don't go there!
You know before 9/11 they made a conspiracy film where the FBI & CIA stage a terrorist attack on a building - and it looked more realistic than the official report of events. Even to the point of the FBI providing the corpses of alleged arab terrorists.
Just one more use for arab prisoners held in guantanamo bay or secret CIA prisons. Convenient expendable fall guys.
I think the ABC apologists have it right - fake truth. I'm not watching it, nor am I doing anything that involves participating in a national orgy of false patriotism. It's just a big fat political picnic they've go going here.
I addressed this again here this morning. Did you know the Lord duh-bya & his neo-con controllers are so happy with this that they've asked for 20 minutes live airtime (for some fearmongering & propaganda catapulting no doubt) in the middle of the film on Monday?
This whole thing stinks to high hell and I see it as nothing more than a prelude to the "October Surprise" which will be delivered right before the mid-terms...
See:
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm#p0
It didn't work at my blog either. Send me an email, then I could get the link to you.
Thanks for doing a post on this. I was going to, but now I do not have to. =)
What is Disney thinking? They aren't. I can only think they are trying to appease Bush and the GOP for some past transgression or pay in advance for something in the future.
It is such a shame that they actively made the material incorrect instead of going to great lengths to be fair and accurate like United 93 did and the WTC movie supposedly did.
I am outraged.
Thanks for the link, in needed it fo rone of my trolling expiditions...lol
;)
Par for course in the land ofthe free.
"i haven't watched any of the movies about 9/11. i think they are disingenuous and capitalizing on other folk's demise. ...stop with the reality tv mentality america- and show a bit of dignity."
I too, do not want to see any movie based on 9/11. It was a horrible tragedy that is still fresh in the mind of all Americans. I just want to reflect and offer my thoughts and prayers to all the victims and their families. I agree 100% with your words.
The failure of our government at all levels (there is no partisan politics here) is too much for me to handle.
As for the definition of "fascism," I don't think I would feel comfortable being told what it is from a Marxist POV. I suggest that Betmo do some independent research on the subject. Giving the definition of a political philosophy based on ANOTHER political philosophy is bound to be false and disingenuous.
Things aren't perfect in America, but I'm of the opinion that I would not want to live anywhere else. I've been extremely pessimistic over the past year on the state of things in our country. It's time to shake off this negative attitude and remember what is great about our country and what WE can do to make it great.
well- the good news is that we can make a difference and change things. it will take hard work, committment and an attention span longer than that of a gnat. we have the power to change things- we just have to do it.
Marxist propaganda disguised as a definition of fascism :-) now I have seen it all. The extreme left trying to define the extreme right ....
What next the Rupert Murdoch definition of socialism LOL.
I would strongly suggest using a good dictionary for the meaning of the word Fascism.
But hey , that's just me :-)
As I still do not own a television, I will not be watching this mockumentary. Nevertheless, I must say that the reviews I read of it (before the Clinton administration officials began to attack it) suggested that, if anything, it was simply too boring and rather uninteresting. Specifically, I read an article in Entertainment Weekly suggesting that, if anything, it sacrificed dramatic content to achieve balance.
In any event, I cannot help but notice that there is no conservative outcry equivalent to the Reagan series, as obob noted, where the creators apparently suggested (I never saw it) that gays (among others) deserved AIDS.
Ah well, the networks are rather indulgent. If past is prologue, this "documentary drama" will be as close to live footage as the evening news is to events of the day.
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