Posted on 09/07/2006 4:12:34 PM PDT by Mo1
Senate Democratic leadership threatens Disney with legal and legislative sanctions
by John in DC - 9/07/2006 06:02:00 PM
Read it, then read my analysis of it below:September 7, 2006
The Senate Democratic leadership just threatened Disney's broadcast license. Not the use of the word "trustee" at the beginning of the letter and "trust" at the end. This is nothing less than an implicit threat that if Disney tries to meddle in the US elections on behalf of the Republicans, they will pay a very serious price when the Democrats get back in power, or even before.
Mr. Robert A. Iger
President and CEO
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank CA 91521
Dear Mr. Iger,
We write with serious concerns about the planned upcoming broadcast of The Path to 9/11 mini-series on September 10 and 11. Countless reports from experts on 9/11 who have viewed the program indicate numerous and serious inaccuracies that will undoubtedly serve to misinform the American people about the tragic events surrounding the terrible attacks of that day. Furthermore, the manner in which this program has been developed, funded, and advertised suggests a partisan bent unbecoming of a major company like Disney and a major and well respected news organization like ABC. We therefore urge you to cancel this broadcast to cease Disney’s plans to use it as a teaching tool in schools across America through Scholastic. Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.
The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.
Disney and ABC claim this program to be based on the 9/11 Commission Report and are using that assertion as part of the promotional campaign for it. The 9/11 Commission is the most respected American authority on the 9/11 attacks, and association with it carries a special responsibility. Indeed, the very events themselves on 9/11, so tragic as they were, demand extreme care by any who attempt to use those events as part of an entertainment or educational program. To quote Steve McPhereson, president of ABC Entertainment, “When you take on the responsibility of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that you get it right.”
Unfortunately, it appears Disney and ABC got it totally wrong.
Despite claims by your network’s representatives that The Path to 9/11 is based on the report of the 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Commissioners themselves, as well as other experts on the issues, disagree.
Richard Ben-Veniste, speaking for himself and fellow 9/11 Commissioners who recently viewed the program, said, “As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 Commission’s findings the way that they had.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]
Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar, and a national security advisor to ABC has described the program as “deeply flawed” and said of the program’s depiction of a Clinton official hanging up on an intelligence agent, “It’s 180 degrees from what happened.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]
Reports suggest that an FBI agent who worked on 9/11 and served as a consultant to ABC on this program quit halfway through because, “he thought they were making things up.” [MSNBC, September 7, 2006]
Even Thomas Kean, who serves as a paid consultant to the miniseries, has admitted that scenes in the film are fictionalized. [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]
That Disney would seek to broadcast an admittedly and proven false recounting of the events of 9/11 raises serious questions about the motivations of its creators and those who approved the deeply flawed program. Finally, that Disney plans to air commercial-free a program that reportedly cost it $40 million to produce serves to add fuel to these concerns.
These concerns are made all the more pressing by the political leaning of and the public statements made by the writer/producer of this miniseries, Mr. Cyrus Nowrasteh, in promoting this miniseries across conservative blogs and talk shows.
Frankly, that ABC and Disney would consider airing a program that could be construed as right-wing political propaganda on such a grave and important event involving the security of our nation is a discredit both to the Disney brand and to the legacy of honesty built at ABC by honorable individuals from David Brinkley to Peter Jennings. Furthermore, that Disney would seek to use Scholastic to promote this misguided programming to American children as a substitute for factual information is a disgrace.
As 9/11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick said, “It is critically important to the safety of our nation that our citizens, and particularly our school children, understand what actually happened and why – so that we can proceed from a common understanding of what went wrong and act with unity to make our country safer.”
Should Disney allow this programming to proceed as planned, the factual record, millions of viewers, countless schoolchildren, and the reputation of Disney as a corporation worthy of the trust of the American people and the United States Congress will be deeply damaged. We urge you, after full consideration of the facts, to uphold your responsibilities as a respected member of American society and as a beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves to cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Sincerely,
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Byron Dorgan
This raises the stakes incredibly for Disney.
I wonder if there's anyone in their caucus screaming that this is nuts?
___________
I bet so. It'll be interesting to see who shows up on the talk shows and who doesn't.
I know we're on the same page, and the same side... I don't mean to sound comative. I'd just rather be correctly quoted.
Not anyone up for reelection in a red state.
Doubtful - anyone who did that would be instantly "Liebermaned."
comative = combative
durn fingies
As angry as I am with the Republicans, I'm going to vote this November anyway. This little episode should give you a hint of just what's to come if these fascists win in November.
Well I *ping*ed 'em all! lol
This is so very, very sad. The Democrat party used to stand for something other than lying, cheating, and stealing. They used to be AGAINST traitors and enemies of the U.S.A. (foreign AND domestic). They used to be FOR God, decency, principles, and the strength of our nation. It's sad.....but also alarming. We can't turn our back on these people. We can't allow them to run this Nation.....PERIOD!!!!
Good policy, especially here on FR :)
"Senator Byron Dorgan...These Rats are as bad as the Mullahs of Iran."
Speaking of censorship and mullahs - Dorgan, Durbin and Kerry successfully censored (redacted) 100 pages of the Barrett Report which would have spilled the beans on the Bent One's pressure on govt. agencies in the Cisneros investigation. Did our Republican stalwarts write letters about that or prevent its happening?
I'm not happy with them either. I will be voting for them however, no other choice.
a-HA, we must have had a couple of posters-in-common! lol
Also from the DUmp
I'm still only halfway through this thread, so I don't know if anyone went to DU to check google bomb news
To counteract the effects the ABC 9-11 movie could have on the midterm elections, I recommend this course of action:
The night of, and the morning after, people will be hitting the internet looking for information on the events as depicted in this movie.
Our biggest opportunity will be to have nearly identical blog posts waiting, then submit them to be found internet wide the morning after the movie. Google and Technorati will pick up on these posts quickly. We can make these entries dominate the first several pages of the search engines.
MAKE SURE THE POST TITLE HAS THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE IN IT!
Get every Democratic friendly blog on board as possible... you e-mail the ones you know, they'll e-mail the ones they know, etc. Make SURE these blogs are on the Technorati network and have also been submitted to Google's blog search.
For one day, change the title of your blog to the title of the movie.
Agree on a clear, detailed, and sourced body of information -- I've seen several examples on DU lately disputing what is in the movie. Media Matters has one. One was posted today on DU by Richard Clarke.
Everyone post it. Right after the movie is over or the next morning at the latest.
MAKE SURE THE POST TITLE HAS THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE IN IT!
DU JOURNALS WILL ALSO WORK! They're indexed in Technorati! To use DU journals for this, the admins will need to allow a forum for everyone who want to to post and almost identical post with facts concerning intelligence failures leading up to 9/11.
MAKE SURE THE POST TITLE HAS THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE IN IT!
Sample info:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
There is no proof. The fact of the matter is the writer of "Path to 9/11" interviewed many of the same people the 9/11 commission staffers did. The commission can't survive a side by side comparison of the one on one interviews.
Scholastic has NEA affiliations, I believe.
Yup. We can start purging the RINOs after the election.
Agree, but smaller font would be greatly appreciated.
You have done your work for the party for the whole year just today.
That's why I keep my GOP registration, for primaries.
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