ABC released their statement, saying:
“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.“
Well, if by “no one” you mean the 900 right-wing media outlets and bloggers which got a copy of the movie. I guess it’s only “premature and irresponsible” if you’re criticizing their propaganda. Raving in support of it is A-OK with the House of Mouse.
So that’s it. Time to boycott ABC and Disney. Hit ’em in the wallets, which is one of the two things (the other being the Bible) that matters to NeoCons.
Talk a look at CBS’ quick and complete cave-in to conservative protests over The Reagans miniseries in 2003, and compare it to the current situation. This pretty much tells you just how much merit there is to the constant whining NeoCon complaints about the so-called “Liberal Media.”
Bleah. Nothing short of a full-on revolution is going to un-fuck this country….and we all know that’s never going to happen.
EDIT: It’s not all bad news, though: Scholastic is pulling their support of the program, and will no longer be disseminating the propaganda to schools:
Educational media giant Scholastic, Inc. announced it’s dropping its original classroom companion guides to a controversial new docudrama, and replacing them with materials stressing critical thinking and media literacy.
“After a thorough review of the original guide that we offered online to about 25,000 high school teachers, we determined that the materials did not meet our high standards for dealing with controversial issues,” said Dick Robinson, Chairman, President and CEO of Scholastic, in a press release.
I was going to just type “Fuck.” but I’m thankful for the Scholastic bit. At least I’m not going to have to go stage a protest at my daughter’s school. Yet.
There’s still a chance for victory on this issue — they just lost their educational partner on this, which is a major cornerstone of what they were planning. If we keep the pressure on ABC…and especially Disney, there can still be some movement on this.
Disney needs to realize that they’re in danger of having their “family friendly” image tainted by association….and this could affect their movies, theme parks, DVD sales, etc.
Well, I contacted my local ABC affiliate to express my outrage. Not sure it will help, but I tried.
I’m glad to see about the Scholastic change – it is good to know that there are still some who believe that education includes critical thinking. I’ll drop a nice note to them too.
I just sent an email to the general manager of KMBC (ABC affiliate Channel 9 here in KC) requesting that the station pre-empt that broadcast with something either more entertaining or more factual. If they do not, I will be recording it for the sole purpose of identifying the commercial sponsors and avoiding their products and services from here on in.
How do we…
most effectively plague the Mouse?
FYI – this is the response I got from WLS (ABC Ch 7 in Chicago).
“”The Path to 9/11 is a dramatization, not a documentary, drawn from a variety of sources, including the 9/11 commission report, other published materials and from personal interviews. The events that lead to 9/11 originally sparked great debate, so it’s not surprising that a movie surrounding those events has revived the debate. The attacks were a pivotal moment in our history that should never be forgotten and it’s fitting that the discussion continues.”
In addition, the following disclaimer will air throughout the movie:
“The following movie is a dramatization that is drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 Commission Report and other published materials, and from personal interviews. The movie is not a documentary. For dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, as well as time compression.”
They say it’s now the “official” ABC response, and it’s probably the best we’re going to get under the circumstances.
According to the ABBC website, it will be run with no commercial interruption. Apparently, it is a $40 mil series. They have backing somewhere, but it looks like it won’t be advertised.
I sent a message through the main ABC website with a LOST tag, letting them know that they are upsetting LOST fans by airing this 9/11 crap. Don’t know if it will help, but I figure it has more chance of getting read that way.
Well now I look like an idiot to their GM. Crap.
I just went and read a lot about this movie, and apparently there are also some scenes of direct footage of Bush and some dramatizations of Condi Rice in which they both pretty much blatantly ignore the warning signs. So there is a lot of blame-spreading, actually.
It is a movie. I think it’s not something to freak out about when there are so many other things going on.
The Scholastic part in it was much more worrisome, and they’re out of it, so… relax. Nobody takes made for TV movies seriously, except for people who are already hopelessly trapped in the miasma of TV-reality.