A Docu-fraud

– September 6, 2006Posted in: Blog

So this Sunday, ABC plans to air what they have billed as a “TV Event,” a “docudrama” called “The Path to 9/11.” They even said it was based on the 9/11 Commission’s report.

Convenient. Except in the past week, we have learned many things about the so-called “event”:

The miniseries was written by right-wing writers, and blatantly uses the old GOP playbook of scare tactics — conveniently right before a major election.
Less than two weeks ago, 9/11 Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste confronted a lead writer of “The Path to 9/11″ after watching the first half of the miniseries at a screening, but most of what we know amounts to bits and pieces because…
ABC chose to screen the miniseries to conservative bloggers and right-wing media outlets exclusively. Almost none of the Democrats portrayed in the film have even been asked for their thoughts.
Richard Clarke — the counterterrorism czar for the Clinton administration, now himself a consultant to ABC News — describes a key scene in “The Path to 9/11″ as “180 degrees from what happened.” In the scene, a CIA field agent places a phone call to get the go ahead to kill Osama Bin Laden, then in his sights, only to have a senior Clinton administration official refuse and hang up the phone. Sandy Berger, President Clinton’s National Security Advisor, called the same scene “a total fabrication. It did not happen.” And Roger Cressey, a top Bush and Clinton counterterrorism official, said it was “something straight out of Disney and fantasyland. It’s factually wrong. And that’s shameful.”
They take shots at legitimate journalistic institutions, accusing the Washington Post of blowing the secret that American intelligence tracked his satellite phone calls. Actually, responsibility for that blunder — contrary to “The Path to 9/11″ — rests with none other than the conservative Washington Times.
ABC asked only the Republican co-chair of the 9/11 Commission, Tom Kean, Sr., to advise the makers of “The Path to 9/11″. The producers optioned two books, one written by a Bush administration political appointee, as the basis of the screenplay — yet bill the miniseries as “based on the 9/11 Commission Report.”

The list goes on and on. To tell the Disney company about its network’s blatant misrepresentation of the facts, click here.

Don’t let this attempt to re-write history — and blame Democrats just in time for fall elections — make it into America’s living rooms. Write ABC today.

They are our airwaves. The only way to make sure they aren’t violated is to take action.

–ASM
(facts distributed by DNC)

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UPDATE I: See an interview with Ben-Veniste here. He calmly but completely takes apart the false storylines in the movie. (via Crooks and Liars)
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UPDATE II: Commenter Brian S. brings up a good point: the best way to make our voices heard is to call our local affiliate and express that we think they should choose to air something else instead (which is well within their power and rights as an affiliate). The number at 6ABC — our affiliate in Philadelphia — is 215-878-9700.