ABC Stands By Its 9/11 Story — Almost

Chicago Tribune ^ | Sept. 9, 2006 | Scott Collins and Tina Daunt

[katieanna]

After minor edits in response to Democratic critics, the miniseries will air as scheduled. It's already set off a bitter election-year dispute. Walt Disney Co.'s ABC is forging ahead with plans to air a miniseries starting Sunday despite controversy over its efforts to dramatize — and some say unfairly politicize — the events leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Producers said late Friday that they had finished making minor edits to "The Path to 9/11" amid a firestorm of protests from leading Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who warned that telecasting "right-wing political propaganda" might violate the terms of ABC's government-mandated broadcast license.

[BenLurkin]

No -- showing the Japanese flying the planes but editing out the part where they are smiling as the USS Arizona blows up.

[onyx]

You know, apparently Bush doesn't come off faring well either.

It covers 8 years of Clinton and 8 months of Bush.

[mware]

This is what happens at the beginning of night two.

The October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole sends O'Neill and his team to Yemen, where he runs afoul of the U.S. Ambassador, who tries to have O'Neill recalled to the States. The investigation in Yemen stalls, but the White House, confident bin Laden is behind the attack, continues to debate how to stop him.

When they showed this to some bigwigs, they did not get a chance to show part 2 to them.

Ben Venista did not see this part.

[Ilky Hucktar]

Here we've spent all this time and effort on this idiotic Plame deal, and there has been no investigation about how Loral was able to transfer technology to North Korea through the Dept. of Commerce (Ron Brown, who subsequently rode a plane into a Kosovo mountainside) instead of DOD.

[mware]

That would be Neil Gabler, I would think.

[veronica]

Based on the team that put it together, I expect Bush to come out pretty well.

[o_zarkman44]

Why is it always Democrats who complain the loudest and first about how we prosecute issues of national security?

[freedumb2003]

ABC will air the film. FWIW, the NY Times gives the film a thumbs up.

The NYT forgot to check with its handlers.

[Samwise]

Here we've spent all this time and effort on this idiotic Plame deal, and there has been no investigation about how Loral was able to transfer technology to North Korea through the Dept. of Commerce (Ron Brown, who subsequently rode a plane into a Kosovo mountainside) instead of DOD.

Bingo

[freekitty]

Now I suppose we will see with the edits, the Clintons coming off better than Bush. Hmmmm...........

[Socratic]

Wouldn't be too sure about that....They've had their first amendment rights threatened.....

I agree. I think the Dims have overplayed their hand again, and any "edits" will be minuscule. This whole furor is showcasing that the Clintonistas have so much they want to hide.

[freedumb2003]

Joe 6-pack's editing:

I heard the failure to take Osama scene has been re-shot and now shows Bill (played by Harrison Ford) and Hillary (Madonna) in black Ninja gear approaching bin-Laden's (Kobe Bryant) mountain hideaway in the dead of night when they receive a phone call from Bob Bennett (Raymond Burr) telling them that he has just received a subpoena for Clinton's DNA from Ken Starr (Montgomery Burns). On the verge of taking bin-Laden into custody, a teary-eyed Bill tells Hillary that even though getting bin-Laden would be the right thing to do and save lives in the long run, Bill's lifelong devotion to law and justice means they must drop the task at hand in order to comply immediately with the subpoena. After a tearful embrace where Bill tells Hillary how much he loves her, and how they'll get another chance to get bin-Laden once she's president, the clinton's reluctantly turn away from bin-Laden's lair, and dejectedly return to the US so that Bill can be persecuted in the House impeachment hearings by Henry Hyde (Carrol O'Connor.)

[Not A Snowbird]

BULLSH*T!!!!! THEY HAVE EDITED OUT THE TRUTH, BUSH WILL LOOK LIKE A FOOL AND CLINTON WILL COME AWAY SMELLING LIKE ROSES

Why don't we wait and see what the final product looks like before we launch into all caps mode?

[r9etb]

Now I suppose we will see with the edits, the Clintons coming off better than Bush. Hmmmm...........

Here's the beauty of the deal: there's no time for them to "fix" things. They can take stuff out, I suppose, but not too much. And they can't add new or different stuff, because there's no time to film it and add it in.

If Clinton came out smelly in the original, he can only smell moderately less bad in the "edited" version.

[onyx]

IIRC, it was Jane Hall, but there's always so much shouting I can't be certain.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

Maybe, but GW Bush will take it like the class act he and his wife are. The Clinton's are nothing but Democrat vermin and trash, and slowly the American people will begin to realize what low life traitor scum they are.

[Edit35]

I smell a Rat.

I've smelled a rat since day one, and have already posted my suspicions here on FR.

My suspicion is that ABC previewed this docudrama to those 200 or so politico/journalists, knowing full well that the Clintonoids would go ballistic and demand edits and/or withdrawal of the entire movie.

While getting defacto backing from the right-leaning politico's who LIKED the original, ABC then EDITS the first night of the docudrama in order to make Clinton look good (or not as bad).

Of course ABC also leaves the second night alone (making Bush look like a dolt).

Bottom LIne: I just cant for the life of me envision anyone at ABC ever ever ever giving the Republicans a break. It just is not in their DNA makeup.

[ark_girl]

You're joking right? You forgot to use the sarcasm tags.

We see left wing propaganda every day coming out of the networks and companies Disney owns.

[pj_627]

"You know, apparently Bush doesn't come off faring well either."

To me, the difference is in how each of these men responded once we were attacked.

I am sure that President Bush, as he looks back on the early days of his administration, after the turbulent, insane election and the shenanigans Gore pulled afterward, I am sure he looks back and wishes he had done some things differently. He is an honest man.

But he INHERITED the mess Clinton left him. Once we were hit, HE would not respond in a way that would protect and defend this country. Clinton was only interested in himself, and how the polls would respond to any action he took. So he didn't act. That's a key difference.

I have no real problem if some of the "mistakes", if that's what they are, that the Bush administration made are considered in this movie. But not until after the MANY mistakes Clinton made are looked at.

Clinton made one stupid mistake after another, for 8 YEARS, and didn't act. That is the area the media has consistantly refused to address, or even consider as major factors leading up to 9-11. You cannot understand HOW 9-11 happened if you don't explore the failures of the Clinton adminstration. I hope a lot of that is left intact in this film.

Once we were attacked, however, President Bush acted. Clinton did not.

pattyjo

[Right_in_Virginia]

Now I suppose we will see with the edits, the Clintons coming off better than Bush.

How? After all, the path to 9/11 is paved during Clinton's tenure. Not even the Clintonistas can spin that.