Official Protests
The New York Times is reporting that Madeleine Albright, Sandy Berger, and Bruce R. Lindsey have all sent letters to Disney (ABC) head Robert Iger complaining of egregious fabrications in the “Path to 9/11” fictionalization.
…former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, said in her letter … that although she had requested a copy of the film, ABC had not given her one. But, Ms. Albright said, she has been told by people who have seen it that it “depicts scenes that never happened, events that never took place, decisions that were never made and conversations that never occurred.” … “Sept. 11 is not ‘entertainment,’ it is reality,” Ms. Albright wrote Mr. Iger. “Before you air your broadcast, I trust you will ensure you have the facts right.”
Sandy Berger wrote that the movie “flagrantly misrepresents my personal actions” and will serve “only to grossly misinform the American people.”
However, Disney executives probably won’t listen to any of it; a right-wing blogger claims (via Think Progress) that he has been assured by ABC that only extremely minor, barely noticeable changes will be made. ABC “left the door open” to last-minute changes, the Times reported, but I think it’s highly unlikely they’ll do so. The “Reagans” miniseries got dropped by CBS entirely, to be shown only on pay cable; if indeed the right-wing smears and lies in this new miniseries is allowed to be broadcast uncorrected (not to mention nearly commercial free), it’ll be just that much more evidence that the media is decidedly right-wing, not left.
Update: via Tom Tomorrow, from the New York Post:
A furious Bill Clinton is warning ABC that its mini-series “The Path to 9/11″ grossly misrepresents his pursuit of Osama bin Laden – and he is demanding the network “pull the drama” if changes aren’t made.Clinton pointedly refuted several fictionalized scenes that he claims insinuate he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to care about bin Laden and that a top adviser pulled the plug on CIA operatives who were just moments away from bagging the terror master, according to a letter to ABC boss Bob Iger obtained by The Post.
The former president also disputed the portrayal of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as having tipped off Pakistani officials that a strike was coming, giving bin Laden a chance to flee.
“The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has the duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely,” the four-page letter said.
Additionally, Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the 9/11 commission upon whose report the ABC miniseries is allegedly based, strongly disputed the accuracy of the movie as well.
Do we need any more evidence that these guys are fascist?
My god, there policies have been complete failures, by even the lowest of standards. They stand as fools before the entire world, yet they insist on maintaining power, and that means lying about 911.
Clinton warned Bush on Day One that Bin Laden was his top priority. Bush ignored Clinton for no other reason than it came from Clinton.
The Bipartisan report from Senator emiritus Hart and Rudman warned Bush about Terrorism and Bin Laden. Bush ignored it.
Richard Clark warned Bush about Bin Laden. The warning lights were flashing all over Washington and Bush ignored it.
In early August Bush received a National Intellegence briefing warning of Bin Laden’s attempt to attack the United States.
Bush did nothing. Bush spent the entire month of August on Vacation.
Bush’s ignorant, careless, cavalier attitude contributed to the deaths of 3,000 innocent Americans.
Not only did Bush do nothing to protect America, but the days after 9/11 he bent over backwards to protect the members of Bin Ladens family in facilitating getting them out of the United States and back to Saudi Arabia.
You see, not only did Bush do nothing in the face of repeated warnings, to protect Americans, but he everything he could to protect Bin Ladens family members.
Finally, After promising to get Bin laden dead or alive, when he had a chance to bag Bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains, he let him go scott-free. Then he took the dogs of Bin Laden and sent the Army into Iraq, illegaly, and under false pretenses.
Bush did anything and everything to protect Bin Laden’s family and Bin Laden himself, yet did nothing to protect Americans.
He even proposed selling America’s port management to the Middle Eastern Countries Bin Laden draws support from.
Bush has spent more time on vacation in four years than Clinton did in seven years. Then claims its hard work. Lets see he vacations twice as much as Clinton and then claims its hardwork. Obviously he’s not cut out for the job.
Now everthing I said here, why aren’t some Democrats pounding Bush on this substance. We need some back bench barkers with some teeth that will shove this into the face of the media ever fucking day.
Amen to everything you said. To add: according to what his people say, this year he’s spent about 2 hours a day exercising, and 2 hours a day reading, and he goes to bed early. Even when he is “working,” he’d have to work only a 6-hour day or something.