This on CNN:

A miniseries about the events leading to the September 11 attacks is "terribly wrong" and ABC should correct it or not air it, former Clinton administration officials demanded in letters to the network. But in a statement released today, ABC said, "No one has seen the final version of the film, because the editing process is not yet complete, so criticisms of film specifics are premature and irresponsible."

So, we are to believe that ABC's "docudrama" (aka: propaganda reel) of the 9/11 lead-up is STILL BEING EDITED just a couple days before they air it on broadcast TV and distribute it to high schools all over the country.

Ri-i-i-i-ight. And they're considering major revisions based on complaints of enormous factual errors?

Ri-i-i-i-i-i-ight.

The good news is, we're catching them red-handed quicker than ever. The bad news is, it looks like ABC will air this Rush-bot pack of lies anyway.

At least the online public is alerted to this purposeful, politically motivated deception. Now let's see if the public is still fooled by this bullshit.

This has been a test of the Propaganda Early Warning System (PEWS).

"Death before being dishonored any more." - Col. Ted Westhusing

See a tongue-in-cheek visual of "A Guide to the ABC’s For Dummies"...here:

www.thoughttheater.com

I've read the hoo-hah on this at dKos. They sound like lefty freepers.

The criticism is amusing in that it's coming from people who haven't seen the movie. Does this remind you of anyone? (Yes, I read that ABC has previewed it for righty bloggers and no one else. )

It's a TV movie. That means it's crap. Who cares if the Hard Right tunes in and snickers like Beavis and Butthead? ABC is just preaching to the choir.

That being said, what disturbed me was the tie-in with Scholastic Books. I understand they're having second thoughts.

I guess if the right can get "The Reagans" pulled, the left can get "9/11" pulled. I couldn't care less what's on the tube anyway.

- Rick
_{We here highly resolve that government of the people, by the wealthy, for the wealthy, shall perish from the earth.}

September 7, 2006

Mr. Robert A. Iger
President and CEO
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank CA 91521

Dear Mr. Iger,

We write with serious concerns about the planned upcoming broadcast of The Path to 9/11 mini-series on September 10 and 11. Countless reports from experts on 9/11 who have viewed the program indicate numerous and serious inaccuracies that will undoubtedly serve to misinform the American people about the tragic events surrounding the terrible attacks of that day. Furthermore, the manner in which this program has been developed, funded, and advertised suggests a partisan bent unbecoming of a major company like Disney and a major and well respected news organization like ABC. We therefore urge you to cancel this broadcast to cease Disney’s plans to use it as a teaching tool in schools across America through Scholastic. Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

Disney and ABC claim this program to be based on the 9/11 Commission Report and are using that assertion as part of the promotional campaign for it. The 9/11 Commission is the most respected American authority on the 9/11 attacks, and association with it carries a special responsibility. Indeed, the very events themselves on 9/11, so tragic as they were, demand extreme care by any who attempt to use those events as part of an entertainment or educational program. To quote Steve McPhereson, president of ABC Entertainment, “When you take on the responsibility of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that you get it right.”

Unfortunately, it appears Disney and ABC got it totally wrong.

Despite claims by your network’s representatives that The Path to 9/11 is based on the report of the 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Commissioners themselves, as well as other experts on the issues, disagree.

Richard Ben-Veniste, speaking for himself and fellow 9/11 Commissioners who recently viewed the program, said, “As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 Commission’s findings the way that they had.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar, and a national security advisor to ABC has described the program as “deeply flawed” and said of the program’s depiction of a Clinton official hanging up on an intelligence agent, “It’s 180 degrees from what happened.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

Reports suggest that an FBI agent who worked on 9/11 and served as a consultant to ABC on this program quit halfway through because, “he thought they were making things up.” [MSNBC, September 7, 2006]

Even Thomas Kean, who serves as a paid consultant to the miniseries, has admitted that scenes in the film are fictionalized. [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

That Disney would seek to broadcast an admittedly and proven false recounting of the events of 9/11 raises serious questions about the motivations of its creators and those who approved the deeply flawed program. Finally, that Disney plans to air commercial-free a program that reportedly cost it $40 million to produce serves to add fuel to these concerns.

These concerns are made all the more pressing by the political leaning of and the public statements made by the writer/producer of this miniseries, Mr. Cyrus Nowrasteh, in promoting this miniseries across conservative blogs and talk shows.

Frankly, that ABC and Disney would consider airing a program that could be construed as right-wing political propaganda on such a grave and important event involving the security of our nation is a discredit both to the Disney brand and to the legacy of honesty built at ABC by honorable individuals from David Brinkley to Peter Jennings. Furthermore, that Disney would seek to use Scholastic to promote this misguided programming to American children as a substitute for factual information is a disgrace.

As 9/11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick said, “It is critically important to the safety of our nation that our citizens, and particularly our school children, understand what actually happened and why – so that we can proceed from a common understanding of what went wrong and act with unity to make our country safer.”

Should Disney allow this programming to proceed as planned, the factual record, millions of viewers, countless schoolchildren, and the reputation of Disney as a corporation worthy of the trust of the American people and the United States Congress will be deeply damaged. We urge you, after full consideration of the facts, to uphold your responsibilities as a respected member of American society and as a beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves to cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Byron Dorgan

"The Path to Mickey"
by John in DC - 9/07/2006 01:07:00 PM

(Disclaimer: The following blog post is a dramatization that is drawn from a variety of sources including actual historical photos and other published materials. The post is not a documentary. For dramatic and narrative purposes, the post contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, as well as time compression.)

The Path to Mickey

(...)

... Jews were the cause of all the world's wars, Mickey believed. He also felt that Jews were unfit to hold public office, as they would "legislate sin." (Below, Mickey poses at a recent chi-chi Washington dinner with a Minnie impersonator.)

(...)

ABC’s The Path:

Path" is the dullest, worst-shot TV movie since ABC's disastrous "Ten Commandments" remake. It substitutes shaky handheld cameras and dumb dialogue for craftsmanship. It could not be more amateurish or poorly constructed unless someone had forgotten to light the sets.

An appalling secondary concern is the tone makes almost every pre-9/11 American look like a fool.

Look, there's a security guard yawning while terrorists plant the 1993 bomb at the World Trade Center. How dare a security guard work while tired.

Oh, hey, there's an airline agent checking in a 9/11 terrorist even though he has a carry-on bag. Stupid airline agents.

Excuse us all, writer Cyrus Nowrasteh and director David L. Cunningham, for not acting like Hitler Youth in the glory days before ordinary Americans knew commercial planes could be turned into missiles.

Idiots.

Cheap emotions are on orange alert. Of all the people who died in the 1993 attack, who does the camera focus on? Ding-ding-ding, you are a winner if you said "a pregnant woman rubbing her belly."

Harvey Keitel and Donnie Wahlberg portray key U.S. agents who give canny speeches about how they can't take out Osama bin Laden because politicians and high-ranking officials balk at giving them the OK. This is the big lie around which other lies scurry, according to both Republican and Democratic policy experts.

If you read some of the investigations into 9/11, you realize fault spreads far and wide, from FBI and CIA agents to politicians of both parties. "Path" depicts most of these Americans as villainous morons, rather than as flawed people committing errors.

The film uses composite characters and ignores some real players. A section centering on Yemen is laughable to anyone who read Lawrence Wright's recent New Yorker piece on Ali Soufan, who was the only Arabic-speaking FBI agent in New York. He was thisclose to busting the terrorists but got stonewalled by CIA agents who didn't share information.

Soufan was a pivotal point man on the path to 9/11. He is not a character in "The Path to 9/11."

Ground Zero is a sobering soil worthy of facts, not flimsy fiction. The victims of 9/11 deserve 2,996 times more careful and compelling filmmaking than what Nowrasteh, Cunningham and ABC have bored together. They are bearing false witness to the memory of the fallen.

-----

More than 25,000 people have written to ABC complaining about The Path. Seems like The Path has been muddied.

I don't watch the crapola that is on the TV and won't be watching this one. I feel sorry for Americans who use TV as their primary source of news. The announcers masquerade as journalists--TV News is about ratings and should more fittingly be classified as infotainment interspersed with commerical messages.

As scary as it is that this crap will get pushed onto the airwaves, the process this is taking on is almost amusing.

It's almost like we're fighting for the opportunity to reach the lowest common denominator. And it's sad.

Most semi-educated people will understand that this is a fallacy, even without the dems in the govt having to say anything.
The fact that they said something will get the semi-literate somewhat engaged and beak thru the propaganda for them. the folks at the bottom of this pool, the ones that only beleive what the TV and the church tell them, are the ones that the tv-show authors are trying to reach, and who the dems are trying to "protect" from seeing it.

It's kind of scary the way the machine works nowadays... It's not simply a battle of ideas and ideologies, it's a race to trick (convince) the most feeble-minded that you're idea is better.

sigh.

Comrades Bravo!

[duplicate content deleted as spam] -- qB

(perhaps they mean MadelEine Albright?
hattip dKos - ES)

Mickey was on the roof of the WTC as the plane was about to strike!

Hat tip: Americablog.com

-----

I’m wondering if I should send this link to DailyKos so they can urge everyone to sign the petition for the release of the DVD of Disney’s Song of the South?

Disney has made several animated propaganda films, therefore, it doesn't surprise me they would support the release of this erroneous dramatization of the events of 9/11.