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Now "Professional Historians" Pressure ABC to Drop "The Path to 9/11"
Yahoo News ^ | September 8, 2006 | Rick Perlstein

Posted on 09/08/2006 10:10:21 PM PDT by TaxachusettsMan

A group of leading American historians today sent the following letter to Mr. Robert Iger of ABC. Stressing the significance of the "traumatic" events of 9/11, the signers of this letter are calling on Mr. Iger to stand up for responsible media treatments of such important historical moments and withdraw the program from circulation. The growing list of signatories will be updated at openlettertoabc.blogspot.com.

The text of the letter follows.

Dear Robert Iger:

We write as professional historians, who are deeply concerned by the continuing reports about ABC's scheduled broadcast of "The Path to 9/11." These reports document that this drama contains numerous flagrant falsehoods about critical events in recent American history. The key participants and eyewitnesses to these events state that the script distorts and even fabricates evidence into order to mislead viewers about the responsibility of numerous American officials for allegedly ignoring the terrorist threat before 2000.

The claim by the show's producers, broadcaster, and defenders, that these falsehoods are permissible because the show is merely a dramatization, is disingenuous and dangerous given their assertions that the show is also based on authoritative historical evidence. Whatever ABC's motivations might be, broadcasting these falsehoods, connected to the most traumatic historical event of our times, would be a gross disservice to the public. A responsible broadcast network should have nothing to do with the falsification of history, except to expose it. We strongly urge you to halt the show's broadcast and prevent misinforming Americans about their history.

Sincerely,

Arthur Schlesinger Sean Wilentz, Princeton University Michael Kazin, Georgetown University Lizbeth Cohen, Harvard University, Nicholas Salvatore, Cornell University; Ted Widmer, Brown University; Rick Perlstein, Independent Scholar; David Blight, Yale University; Eric Alterman, City University of New York. Maurice Isserman, Hamilton College (List in formation)


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: academia; americahaters; bookburners; bushhaters; campuscommies; campusradicals; censorship; clintonoids; leftists; pathto911
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To: Howlin
It can only be a matter of time before we hear from Jimmuh Carter.
221 posted on 09/09/2006 3:43:41 AM PDT by Locomotive Breath (In the shuffling madness)
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To: kinoxi
So it's the same group hysteria the libs exhibited when "The Passion of the Christ" came out. My, but these libs are open-minded, tolerant people! (sarcasm off)
222 posted on 09/09/2006 3:47:32 AM PDT by Uncle Vlad (You cannot protect the peoples' civil liberties if you refuse to protect the people.)
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To: TaxachusettsMan
A group of leading American historians...

Where were these moronic idiots when Fahrenheit 911 came out? This story is a non-starter. Just more Commie crap from the panicked leftwing kooks. Schlesinger is a big DemocRATic hack. Always has been. He can't be believed about anything.

223 posted on 09/09/2006 4:03:05 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (The "Peace sign" is the DemocRATS' last act of defiance before they cut 'n' run from the WOT.)
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To: Howlin
Good morning. I was gone last night and missed all the fun. I just happened to notice something. Here's part of Kerry's statementto Arianna Huffington:

What I find most stunning in all of this is that now five years after the real 9/11 - as if any fiction could somehow make more searing what each and every one of us lived with our own eyes and ears..

What I find the most stunning is that he is still using that phrase "searing", as in "It is seared, seared in my memory." LOL!

224 posted on 09/09/2006 4:12:55 AM PDT by Miss Marple (Lord, please look over Mozart Lover's and Jemian's sons and keep them strong.)
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To: bitt
Thanks for the ping!!!
225 posted on 09/09/2006 4:22:27 AM PDT by SheLion ("If you're legal, you can fly with the Eagle!" - Michael Anthony)
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To: bitt
Teresa is gulping meds while trying to figure out why she married the "blue bunny", pondering whether he just married her for her money??

In the meantime, the children are now wondering if the "rodent" Kerry saved by mouth to mouth and wound up "never the same" had been passed some genetic defect in the process of the procedure.

226 posted on 09/09/2006 4:22:35 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (God Bless Our Troops!!)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

Where's the fully respected Paul Krug?????


227 posted on 09/09/2006 4:25:41 AM PDT by aShepard (Maybe the UN should donate UNICEF proceeds to the Gates Foundation, and fold!)
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To: Suzy Quzy
It's the jjjooooooooozzzzzzzzzzz

Now where have we heard that before!

You're in good company, aren't you.

228 posted on 09/09/2006 4:35:40 AM PDT by OldFriend (I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag.....and My Heart to the Soldier Who Protects It.)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

"Historians"? They are nothing but revisionists.


229 posted on 09/09/2006 4:36:09 AM PDT by RoadTest (- - - for without victory there is no survival. -Winston Churchill)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

" remember marveling at Father (formerly Congressman) Robert Drinan of the Jesuits going before the Senate to explain why lying about oral sex was a virtue to cultivate in sitting (or maybe standing) Presidents."

Sure. A Jesuit President gets plenty of Jesuit support.


230 posted on 09/09/2006 4:37:46 AM PDT by RoadTest (- - - for without victory there is no survival. -Winston Churchill)
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To: Miss Marple

Sheesh, all this is like re-living the "alternate universe" that was the Clinton years. For example:

Bruce Lyndsey's letter to ABC saysClinton "authorized the use of force". And he asserts that Clinton and Berger "had authorized Tenet to 'get' Bin Laden".

In Clintonese fashion both statements are somewhat true. The Clintonistas, in their own minds, authorized the use of force to "get" OBL. But we also know that there was a whirlyjig quality to that authorization that left CIA in the lurch. It was NEVER made clear what exactly field agents were authorized to do. They could "use force"...but did that include assasination? Emphatically, no. They could capture, but we know that Clinton didn't think we had the goods to indict OBL. So what was a field agent to do?

The only enlightenment to come of this whole sorry episode has been to remind me of the slithering quality of the Clintonese language.


231 posted on 09/09/2006 4:49:59 AM PDT by Timeout (I hate MediaCrats!)
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To: bitt
What I find most stunning in all of this is that now five years after the real 9/11 - as if any fiction could somehow make more searing what each and every one of us lived with our own eyes and ears - is that we need less revisionism about the past and a hell of a lot more reality about what's going on now. Right now. Instead of the fiction written to excuse the invasion of Iraq by exploiting the 3,000 mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who were lost that day -- they were attacked and killed not by Saddam Hussein but by Osama bin Laden - we need the truth.

OMG...What a monumental, colossal ass. This is the man who invited Michael Moore to his presidential nomination convention as a guest of honor.

232 posted on 09/09/2006 5:03:02 AM PDT by SHOOT THE MOON bat ("I ain't got a dime but what i got is mine. I ain't rich but Lord I'm free." George Strait)
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To: Howlin

The Hil/Alinsky thread was posted three years ago. It has gone the distance since then. Countless eyes have seen it.

Thanks for posting this timely 2008 election reminder. Candidates, particularly, need a refresher course in the evils of moral relativism. It seems to infect those who seek power.

In this perilous age, voters might heed the wisdom of Chesterton: "The lowest of individual vices is the desire to coax and corrupt, and to drag others down to their level."---G.K. Chesterton





BILL, HILLARY, SAUL, AND MORAL RELATIVISM Saul Alinsky and the Lessons He Taught Bill and Hillary

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/886451/posts



233 posted on 09/09/2006 5:16:01 AM PDT by Liz (The US Constitution is intended to protect the people from the government.)
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To: plain talk
They don't state what is inaccurate about the film. As a result there's no rationale given for not showing the film.

Good catch. These "historians" point out that the individuals who are portrayed in the film say that there are inaccuracies, and then go on to rationalize that the film shouldn't be shown based on the protrayed individuals' statements. Those individuals consisting mostly of known liars, of course.

234 posted on 09/09/2006 5:17:48 AM PDT by Hardastarboard (Why isn't there an "NRA" for the rest of my rights?)
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To: TaxachusettsMan

Not only friends of Bill, but backbencher or has-been liberals in the professional historical community as well. It's funny that they're making this pompous appeal based on a "secondary source" that they have not even seen yet. Kinda like damning a book before even reading it...


235 posted on 09/09/2006 5:29:16 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner ("Si vis pacem para bellum")
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To: Howlin
"Are these the same "historians" who all tromped down to Capital Hill and testified in his behalf during impeachment hearings?"

I haven't read all the way through the thread yet, but Arthur Schlesinger and Sean Wilentz absolutely did.

236 posted on 09/09/2006 5:51:13 AM PDT by A Citizen Reporter
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To: TaxachusettsMan

didn't know that old whore whistorian Schlesinger was still alive ... the list shown should be proof positive why no responsible parent should send his kid to an Ivy League school.


237 posted on 09/09/2006 5:56:02 AM PDT by EDINVA
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To: TaxachusettsMan

It will be interesting to see how many of these "historians" also ended up signing the letter against Clintoon's impeachment.


238 posted on 09/09/2006 5:57:15 AM PDT by dirtboy (This tagline has been photoshopped)
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To: TaxachusettsMan
"I remember marveling at Father (formerly Congressman) Robert Drinan of the Jesuits going before the Senate to explain why lying about oral sex was a virtue to cultivate in sitting (or maybe standing) Presidents.

This idiot was the "compromise" candidate to address my law school graduation (university would not let us have who we wanted). It pretty much sums up the law school, IMO. The only good thing, for some reason the PA quit working when he gave his speech, or at least the graduating class could not hear it.

239 posted on 09/09/2006 5:59:42 AM PDT by Corporate Law (<>< Xavier Basketball - Perennial Slayer of #1 Ranked Teams)
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To: TaxachusettsMan
So-called historians are demanding that a network deny the truth because the truth is inconvenient for their political biases. I spit on "historians" like this. I also ask the obvious question: Which of these "historians" has seen the TV program that they are condemning as inaccurate?

Isn't the first job of every historian to GET THE FACTS RIGHT? Then the work of writing history begins. Did I miss something? Or did they?

Congressman Billybob

Latest article: "The Hazleton Case: the People vs. the ACLU"

Please see my most recent new statement on running for Congress, here.

240 posted on 09/09/2006 6:05:08 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob (Have a look-see. Please get involved.)
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