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.
One of the Levinites saw this letter on DU and Mark read it on his show late this afternoon PST and am glad folks are getting reved up.
All Bubba has done is give us a good reason to bring up is crap-ola history.
they are going to sell a lot of DVD of the original script
bttt
I like National Reviews copy of THE LETTER, they highlited the parts that are damning.
As do I. Good idea.
Rush will be all over this -- but MSM might be too.
Let's see how MSM reacts to thuggery.
You summed it up perfectly in just 10 words, j.
Perfectly.
DOn't stop with BOR. Send it to all of them.....It needs to be covered 24/7.
Hear is CHena's list of Fox contacts....Let them hear from you.
Yes, it's Cavuto@foxnews.com
The Beltway Boys — Beltway@foxnews.com
The Big Story w/ John Gibson — Myword@foxnews.com
The Big Story Weekend — Bigstory-weekend@foxnews.com
The Big Story Primetime — Bigstory-weekend@foxnews.com
Bulls & Bears — Bullsandbears@foxnews.com
Cashin' In — Cash@foxnews.com
Cavuto on Business — Cavuto@foxnews.com
DaySide — Dayside@foxnews.com
Forbes on FOX — Forbes@foxnews.com
FOX & Friends — Friends@foxnews.com
FOX News Live — Feedback@foxnews.com
FOX News Live w/ Jamie Colby — Jamie@foxnews.com
FOX News Live Weekend — Feedback@foxnews.com
FOX News Specials — Viewerservices@foxnews.com
FOX News Sunday — FNS@foxnews.com
FOX News Watch — Newswatch@foxnews.com
FOX Report w/ Shepard Smith — Foxreport@foxnews.com
Hannity & Colmes — Hannity@foxnews.com or Colmes@foxnews.com
Heartland w/ John Kasich — Heartland@foxnews.com
The Journal Editorial Report — JER@foxnews.com
The Lineup — Lineup@foxnews.com
On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren — Ontherecord@foxnews.com
The O'Reilly Factor — Oreilly@foxnews.com
Special Report w/ Brit Hume — Special@foxnews.com
Studio B w/ Shepard Smith — Studiob@foxnews.com
War Stories w/ Oliver North — Warstories@foxnews.com
Your World w/ Neil Cavuto — Cavuto@foxnews.com
"Helen Gone Wild"
That is a most disturbing title.
Wake up, indeed!!
They'll rally around the Dems and condemn Disney.
Hot air picked it up also
Thugs for life: Dems threaten ABC's broadcast license over Path to 9/11
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/07/thugs-for-life-dems-threaten-abcs-broadcast-license-over-path-to-911/
1. Did not follow-up on the attempted bombing of Aden marines in Yemen.
2. Shut the CIA out of the 1993 WTC bombing investigation, hamstringing their effort to capture bin Laden.
3. Had Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a key bin Laden lieutenant, slip through their fingers in Qatar.
4. Did not militarily react to the al Qaeda bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
5. Did not accept the Sudanese offer to turn bin Laden.
6. Did not follow-up on another offer from Sudan through a private back channel.
7. Objected to Northern Alliance efforts to assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.
8. Decided against using special forces to take down bin Laden in Afghanistan.
9. Did not take an opportunity to take into custody two al Qaeda operatives involved in the East African embassy bombings. In another little scoop, I am able to show that Sudan arrested these two terrorists and offered them to the FBI. The Clinton administration declined to pick them up and they were later allowed to return to Pakistan.
10. Ordered an ineffectual, token missile strike against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory.
11. Clumsily tipped off Pakistani officials sympathetic to bin Laden before a planned missile strike against bin Laden on August 20, 1998. Bin Laden left the camp with only minutes to spare.
12-14. Three times, Clinton hesitated or deferred in ordering missile strikes against bin Laden in 1999 and 2000.
15. When they finally launched and armed the Predator spy drone plane, which captured amazing live video images of bin Laden, the Clinton administration no longer had military assets in place to strike the archterrorist.
16. Did not order a retaliatory strike on bin Laden for the murderous attack on the USS Cole.
This needs to be it's own article Howlin.
That's what I thought too. Dems always try to take things that work for us and try to use it too, that's why I thought they might be trying to get everyone excited and then come out and "prove" it was a fraud and imply.....
LOL, but they can't possibly walk away from it being on Reid's own website as well as the Senate newroom.
ABC still touting it on their website:
http://abc.go.com/movies/thepathto911/index.html
That post is worth a bump.
The RNC needs to get that message out!
Maybe something about some files...
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