American Airlines is threatening to sue Disney/ABC

Americanblog ^ | 9/11/2006 02:09:00 PM

[demlosers]

An email American just sent out:

Mr. xxxxxx, I think it is important for you to know that ABC had factual errors in its dramatization, and we are looking at possible legal actions as a result. According to the 9-11 Commission report, it was not American Airlines, nor was it even the right airport that was depicted. In reality, it was another airline, flying out of Maine. Please know this was a tragic incident in our company's history and we hope you will be sympathetic to our employees and our airline on this day especially. Again, we are outraged by this situation, and we alerted ABC about its gross error. It is very unfortunate.

Roger

Roger Frizzell Vice President, Corporate Communications & Advertising American Airlines

[the OlLine Rebel]

Correct, plus it would NOT be easily deleted e-mail. It would be in real hard-copy format through the real mail.

Never mind the pathetic writing.

[demlosers]

Total, obvious fake email. Not worth even thinking about.

You're most likely correct, but some in the media are reporting it.

[Centurion2000]

Mr. xxxxxx, I think it is important for you to know that ABC had factual errors in its dramatization, and we are looking at possible legal actions as a result.

I think AA just missed a key word here.

Also, there were quite a few errors regarding planes and the jump seat crew's (Tom Hanks) behavior in Castaway, but you don't see FedEx threatening to sue.

[demlosers]

On second thought, it does appear that this email maybe genuine:

-snip-

In a public statement today, American was more restrained. "The Disney/ABC television program, 'The Path to 9/11,' is inaccurate and irresponsible in its portrayal of the airport check-in events that occurred on the morning of September 11, 2001," said spokesman Tim Wagner. "A factual description of those events can be found in the official government edition of the 9/11 Commission Report and supporting documents."

....

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10712

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Oh come on, the grammar and style in that letter are barely above high-school level. Truly, any letter like that, even hinting at legal action, would have been run by AMR's corporate law dep't...and a real lawyer would have written it. It would have been minimally three times as long and would have mentioned the specific cause of action. This is just not plausible.

Tell you what, if the "media" runs with a story based on that kind of hokey low-grade fake, the media are extremely vulnerable to all manner of hoaxing.

OK, we know that, anyway.

Frankly, I don't think there was anything remotely actionable in TPT911 wrt AMR. They were certainly not glorified, but had there been any violations of FAA regs or Fed law, we would have heard about it long ago. In hindsight, of course the "procedures" (if you can call them that) where uncredentialed passengers (not just Arabic-named passengers) were allowed to board the plane were embarassingly lax, but that's the way it was then.

[demlosers]

Tell you what, if the "media" runs with a story based on that kind of hokey low-grade fake, the media are extremely vulnerable to all manner of hoaxing.

Mary Mapes and CBS news are prime examples.