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.
So now the democrats are openly calling for censorship. It is indeed the party of restricting freedom and we would be fools to vote them into power--at any level.
I will never bow down to these sleazy liars and thieves. And should somehow they take power I must do anything and everything I can to be disobedient to their oppressive government.
"I wonder why."
Fear or diversion......I'm betting on fear. A diversion could have been created with less damning exposure.
Ping. Amen.
She's probably the bitter one. This incident reminded me of "Fried Green Tomatoes". Remember when Kathy Bates smashed the cute little VW with her big sedan, after the VW driver stole a parking space, then told Bates "to face it, I'm younger and faster". Bates' response, after running over the little car, was "face it, girls, I'm older and I have more insurance". It's one of my favorite movie vignettes.
OH, OH, FOX and Friends is talking about "the Letter". Yea, someone is listening, but ABC is editing out ALL the good stuff in the miniseries!!! Oh, no.
BOOKMARK!!!
What the rats are doing is nothing less than a 911 terrorist attack on our way of capitalism.
They can change the channel if they don't want to watch a given show just like anyone else.That's how our system is set up, change the channel! Don't threaten the company that ran a show you don't like!!
This crap about veiled threats against a private corp. is a serious attack on our way of life and as previously stated just shows how into socialism/communism they really are. It must be countered by high officials on our side or they will think they can do anything with impunity.
bttt
Yea , but will ABC fold ..Yes . you know they will. Klinton still holds big influence. This is only the begining if the Dems get in . This is Soviet style censorship and it will only get worse if they return to power.
Bookmark
Most likely the klintonoids thought Disney would simply acquiesce to their demands and it would all be over. Somehow this thing got a life of it's own.....and here we are.
Historically they are the Democrat Party. The modern members have decided that they don't like that name.
It's Disney's "principal obligation" you arrogant degenerate thugs!
#####
Maybe "principle" is one of those words that leftists fear and ignore.
It appears the Democrats seem to be far more interested in preserving the sordid legacy of someone they know full wee is a known rapist, sexual harraser and pathlogical liar than they are facing reality.
We all know full well that it was Clinton admistration policy that led to 9/11. This movie in it's unedited scenes clearly had it right.
And that the Democrats would choose to missuse and their abuse their powers to try and bully ABC into editing or cutting this movie altoghether shows that they clearly have no use whatsoever for the concept of freedom of speech and that they are very clearly poor sports when it comes to people like you and I questiong their actions.
This should serve as a wake up call to those who value their local information sources with regards to the upcoming elections. If the Democrats win both houses of Congress and the Presidency in 2008 and they decide they don't like the content of preogramming that these stations are providing they can missue and abuse their powers to try and take these sources away from us.
If ABC does indeed cave in and we end up with a sanatized version of this movie, than it will clearly show that ABC can't be trusted. I would urge everyone to contact their local ABC Stations and voice their concerns about the Democrat attempts to block the public from finding out the reality of the enormous and harmful actions of the Clinton/Gore Adminstration that led to 9/11.
The Democrat party is indeed a criminal enterprise and they are showing it with their imatture and childish actions. These people need to be put out of business before they end up doing any more harm to this country.
Regards........
No one knows for sure what he all stole .. but we do know some of the documents had to do with the terrorists plan for a millennium bombing
just Burger??
hmmmmmm
Where the hell are Republican threats to do the same thing to CBS over memo-gate??
Being upset and protesting is one thing .. what the Dems are doing is a completely different matter
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