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.
BINGO, Doug.
Idiots.
Disney, yadda, yadda
To Whom It May Concern:
It has come to the attention of we the undersigned, there has been a telephone and letter writing campaign to alter or cancel the upcoming mini-series "Path to 9/11". We are writing to support the televising of this program in it's unaltered version.
The events of the date September 11, 2001 have been burned, pun unintended into the collective consciousness of this great nation. It would be a great disservice to the memories of those who were killed on that day and a slap in the face of those who left behind.
Why does it seem there is only one political party which is against this program? etc, etc,
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.The Communications Act of 1934 does not provide the ABC network with a license -- the act only licenses individual stations (some of which are owned by ABC, yes) to broadcast over radio frequencies. It does not license a network. In fact, the FCC has no jurisdiction over a network. It can regulate individual stations that use public frequencies, but it cannot regulate a network. That's why when they have levied fines over the use of profanity, they have fined individual stations, not networks.
G Gordon Liddy on Hannity....
EXCELLENT- I'm glad to hear that. The info is getting out.
H&C airing some clips now - it looks good. these kinds of dramas are the only things the sheeple can grasp.
airing it unedited is crucial.
BUMP to ABC's contact address:
http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html
here's another one that I had bookmarked
Complete listing of US Senate and Rep contact information. Keep the First Amendment!
Contacting the Congress ^ | 3-24-06
Posted on 03/24/2006 3:13:39 PM EST by Indy Pendance
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602588/posts
This is what I sent ABC:
The independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks has examined a secret videotape of ex-President Clinton discussing an offer from Sudan to have Osama bin Laden arrested five years before the 9/11 attacks, former Navy Secretary and 9/11 Commissioner John Lehman revealed on Tuesday.
Asked if the never-before-seen video confirms that Clinton admitted turning the offer down, Lehman told radio host Sean Hannity, "Well, that is what he said."
While the video of Clinton's bombshell remarks, delivered to the Long Island Association in February 2002, had never been released prior to a request from the 9/11 Commission
That, my friend was a threat.
TURN ON H & C NOW!!
Hannity referencing that video...
It figures, I can see that the Clintonista Machine is still healthy, well and in action...
"Republicans/Conservatives are above all this type of thing doncha know. We take the "high road" while the commies are digging tunnels under us and everyone thinks it's funny."
Yea, they've been doing that for decades ... despite all this sapper activity, we keep winning. It's just possible that people actually are not "sheeple" but instead recognize and detest the Rats' tactics.
Sean talking about this right now.
Do they American people get this?! An American political party is threatening a network with loss of its license if they fail to comply with their programming request! That is what the little paragraph is really about.
This is un-American and disgusting. Imagine if Republicans threatened the networks every time they were unfairly criticized. My gosh, there would be no television left.
They are, for the most part, unpatriotic traitors.
It's shocking!
Liddy talking about Gorelick
Thanks, Mo1.
G. Gordon Liddy talking about how Gorelick made a small wall a 9 foot wall between intelligence agencies.
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