The ABC Movie, part II
Depsite my reservations I watched the first part of Path to 9/11 last night. As an ABC alumnus, I have been stunned to watch this whole extraordinary set of events unfold, something I wrote about last week. I kept thinking - okay, okay, they are just blowing this thing, it can't seem so thoroughly right-wing, and out of control.....
But in the run up I went from disbelief to believing this was a successful use of the public airwaves to promote a right-wing agenda. The first moment was when ABC released a statement mid-week saying that the show was not yet finished and therefore it would be "irresponsible" to offer a critique. And this was after review DVDs had been sent to the press. meaning that reviewers would be offering what was in ABC "irresponsible" reviews across the nation. It seemed more like a response one would get in politics than in the entertainment business.
The second moment was when ABC refused the President of the United States and any progressive commentators an advance copy of the show, even though right-wing bloggers and commentators had gotten copies at least a week in advance. Again, this was not about the content of the show itself, which we didn't have access to, it was about what was becoming a purposeful right-wing influenced media strategy. How could ABC turn down the President, and essentially give him the back of the hand? At one point, director Cunningham was quoted saying something like I have my CIA consultants and Clinton has his.
So I watched. And what I saw was amazing. It was a right-wing hit piece on Clinton and the Administration. Repeated, gratuitous slaps at the President. But above all, as others have noted, the core segment of the whole first part was the near capture of Osama in the summer of 1998, culminating in the moment when Sandy Berger doesn't give the go ahead to the operatives in the field. As we all know by know, of course, that scene never took place, and we never had operatives in the field that summer. The whole key segment of the first night, the one that places the blame right at Clinton and Berger simply never took place. It is scandalous.
I am still amazed by what I saw last night, and saddened by it all. How this thing got through ABC is a mystery. Controls are in place in the network to prevent things like this from happening. But as Iger digs out, he needs to come to grips with not just the production, but the marketing. His communications folks were in on it too.
For a depressing and remarkable piece about the background of the team who produced the movie, read Max Blumenthal's latest piece. It is now clear that thing film was in part the project of a Richard Scaife funded group, yes, the same man who has been bankrolling the conservative movement for years.
But how could that be? Bob Iger, by all accounts a good man, needs to come clean here.
At the end of the day that we should take a degree of solace in the film. The grim reality of their failed ideological movement, government and President has forced the conservatives to turn to fiction to get their message out.
- Simon Rosenberg's blog
- Login to post comments