The ABC Movie
I've been following the news about the upcoming ABC movie "Path to 9/11" closely. I am an ABC alumni, having worked at ABC News in the 1980s. I still know people who work there, and look back at that time as a lucky and wonderful period of my life.
From everything I've read it is clear ABC blew it on this one. I'm not sure how it happened, but the movie is sloppy and inaccurate; the way the network promoted it showed they understood the right would be happy and the Democrats unhappy; reports late last night indicate ABC's partner, Scholastic, the publisher of Harry Potter and other school materials, has pulled their "educational" materials about the film from their web site; and their refusal to allow government officials portrayed to even screen the movie in advance is bizarre and irresponsible, contributing to the sense that there is rightwing conspiracy behind the film.
Given what has happened, and how important the subject matter is, the film should be pulled. Instead turn the time over to ABC News to host live roundtable discussions with representatives of all involved to talk about 9/11, Iraq, and the future of American foreign policy. Given all the controversy, the viewership of these programs would be huge, the public service extraordinary.
The problem for ABC is that they using public airwaves to promote a private, or partisan, agenda. If this was HBO, or even a commercial movie, this would not be as much of an issue. But these are our airwaves not theirs; and they have to be held to a higher standard.
Kudos to Media Matters, Think Progress, Working Assests, MyDD, NPI fellow Jennifer Nix and the many others who have led this very new style campaign against this unfortunate film.
- Simon Rosenberg's blog
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