Thursday, September 07, 2006

ABC gives BJ to W?

Has Disney finally found the form of its mea culpa to BushCo for Disney's involvement in "Farenheit 9/11"?

Because former president Clinton and former secretary of state Madeline Albright, among others, are protesting the content of the upcoming ABC (owned by Disney) miniseries on 9/11, saying that much of it is, well, not true:
“ABC/Disney acknowledges this show is fiction and in direct contradiction of the 9/11 commission report and the facts, and it is despicable that ABC/Disney would insist on airing a fictional version of what is a serious and emotional event for our country,” Clinton Foundation spokesman Jay Carson said in a statement Thursday. “No reputable organization should dramatize 9/11 for a profit at the expense of the truth.”

Clinton is upset because the series apparently portrays him as too involved in the Monica Lewinsky thing to pay attention to terrorism.

Damn! The power of the blow job never ceases to amaze me.

James Bamford, famous chronicler of the NSA, had this to say about the show:
"It’s made-up. This is fiction. This is not real. One of my friends actually was a consultant to this production — an FBI agent who worked on 9/11. He quit halfway through because he thought they were making things up."

Richard Clarke, who's about the furthest thing we have from a moral coward, says yup, there's some made-up shit in there:

In particular, some critics — including Richard A. Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar — questioned a scene that depicts several American military officers on the ground in Afghanistan. In it, the officers, working with leaders of the Northern Alliance, the Afghan rebel group, move in to capture Osama bin Laden, only to allow him to escape after the mission is canceled by Clinton officials in Washington.

In a posting on ThinkProgress.org, and in a phone interview, Mr. Clarke said no military personnel or C.I.A. agents were ever in position to capture Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan, nor did the leader of the Northern Alliance get that near to his camp.“It didn’t happen,” Mr. Clarke said. “There were no troops in Afghanistan about to snatch bin Laden. There were no C.I.A. personnel about to snatch bin Laden. It’s utterly invented.”

Mr. Clarke, an on-air consultant to ABC News, said he was particularly shocked by a scene in which it seemed Clinton officials simply hung up the phone on an agent awaiting orders in the field. “It’s 180 degrees from what happened,” he said. “So, yeah, I think you would have to describe that as deeply flawed.”


Disney doesn't exactly dispute that they are making shit up, either:

"The Path to 9/11″ is not a documentary of the events leading up to 9/11. It is a dramatization, drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 Commission Report, other published materials, and personal interviews. As such–for dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes-–composite and representative characters and dialogue–and time compression.

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. The attacks of 9/11 were a pivotal moment in our history–and it is fitting that the debate about the events related to the attacks continue. However, we hope viewers will watch the entire broadcast of the finished film before forming an opinion about it"


Yeah, high and mighty talk from ABC, who refused Clinton's and Albright's request for copies of the series.

Which is fine. They don't have to give copies to anybody. Except that they did release copies to several right-wing commentaters, including Rush Limbaugh, who apparently is a good buddy of series writer/producer Cyrus Nowrasteh.

So, will ABC cave, like CBS did when it was confronted with criticism that its movie about the Reagans was too harsh on his handling of the AIDS crisis?

4 comments:

GETkristiLOVE said...

I guess in their version, Bush won't go back to reading a children's book when he learns America is under attack?

SkylersDad said...

People will believe this fiction and it will become reality to those who wish to ignore the truth. I mean come on - it was in the movie about 9/11, it has to be real, right?

This is sickening...

Anonymous said...

Good stuff, Vikki. We live in dark times, and you've captured the essence of the truthiness that's going to obscure everyone's vision.

James Brolin was shockingly good as Reagan, that's the funny thing.

vikkitikkitavi said...

SJ: Somewhere in one of the stories it said that ABC intended to send the miniseries to schools SO IT COULD BE TAUGHT!!!!

GKL: In their version, Bush smites ground zero, and a fully formed Coalition of the Willing springs from his forehead.

SD: I would hurl, but I'm out of hurl. I can't even hurl anymore.

David: I can't believe you just said "truthiness" to me. I love you.

And James Brolin rocked because he is exactly as good an actor as Reagan was.