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 Disneys 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 networks 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 Commissions 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 programs depiction of a Clinton official hanging up on an intelligence agent, Its 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.
Have you are anyone seen the snake Carville? Has he crawled out of his hole to the camera lights yet?
Comment was made that the democratic operative on Fox was a young unknown girl. My thoughts: that the experienced ones won't go near it.
"I am not sure this is legit. Have we seen anything to confirm that this letter has been sent by these Senators ?"
LOL....you mean the Dims have a managed to float a forged memo hurting themselves? You know, that's almost possible. That way they can say - We didn't write that! Yeah we feel that way, we wish we wrote it, but we didn't. Spin my behind, this will become a cyclone ...the mother of all spins...all we need is Baghdad Bob to become the spokesman...
'ABC did this to my dad, and it's not fair, it's not fair to have a character and claim that it's supposed to be Madeleine Albright and then put words into her mouth, it's slanderous and libelous.'
Can you believe the utter hubris? Well Mike, have you ever watched a historical movie? It's a little hard to make a movie about events, and not "put words into people's mouths".
And nary a word about the fascist letter that the Democrat senators sent to ABC, threatening to revoke their license if they don't edit the docudrama to their liking. For someone who makes his living by the first amendment, Wallace is a walking hypocrite.
just FYI, further on the thread, I acknowledged the jackasses did, in fact, write this letter and went so far as to post it on the Democrats' Senate own webpage, phony titles and all.
Ahhh...So Dingy Harry, Turbin Durbin (Yeah I'm from Illinois and embarassed as hell that our state elected this POS), Little Chuckie Schumer, and two other Senators I know nothing about are taking credit for this it would seem. How quaint.
Well, the silver lining - what great campaign fodder for Republicans to use in the midterms. Do you want to elect these guys and those that think like them? If so, you will have real, tangible government censorship. Want proof? Read this.....
Ahhhhhhhhh............................................
The sweet sound of dims about to get spanked in yet another election.
No, of course they shouldn't.
I was just (flippantly) illustrating the fact that if Republicans had done this, the MSM would be screaming from the rooftops.
Towards who ... Clinton??
Or was he talking about both Clinton and Bush?
Sorry for not picking that up :0)
He tried to conjure up sympathy for his father, who has made a living out of lying about people on television, and calling it "news".
Well .. can't say I'm surprised
But he would have had more creditable if he had not taken sides
No worries! :)
"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"
*cough* CBS *cough* Dan Rather *cough*
From Hot Air:
Miserable failure: More Clinton counterterror catastrophes
So many inconvenient truths to keep track of. So many great scenes that could have been dramatized, and werent.
Maybe they should pull Path to 9/11. Reshoot it, make everything nice and sourced this time. Not only would it would enhance the movies credibility, it would give super-secret right-wing Rovian gestapo infiltrator operative/screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh all the license he needs to really destroy Billy Jeff.
SeeDubyas angling to consult on the new script, and has helpfully retrieved this anecdote, as related by Michael Scheuer last year on Hardball, from the memory hole:
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/08/miserable-failure-more-clinton-counterterror-catastrophes/
because they know the truth about whats going to happen with the Nov elections.
They aren't going to regain the house and senate.
That is a great description of that old goat's work career, and totally accurate.
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