Posted on 09/10/2006 9:36:29 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - ABC aired its miniseries "The Path to 9/11" on Sunday but made editing changes after former Clinton administration officials complained it contained fabricated scenes about their actions prior to the terrorist attacks.
ABC's editing of the five-hour movie, airing on two successive nights starting Sunday, was evident from the very beginning. Twice, the network de-emphasized the role of the 9/11 commission's final report as source material for the film.
The version that aired Sunday also changed a scene that, in a copy of the movie given to television critics a few weeks ago, indicated President Clinton's preoccupation with his potential impeachment may have affected an effort to go after Osama bin Laden.
In the original scene, an actor portraying White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke shares a limousine ride with FBI agent John O'Neill and tells him: "The Republicans are going all-out for impeachment. I just don't see in that climate the president's going to take chances" and give the order to kill bin Laden.
But in the film aired Sunday, Clarke says to O'Neill: "The president has assured me this ... won't affect his decision-making."
O'Neill replies: "So it's OK if somebody kills bin Laden, as long as he didn't give the order. It's pathetic."
The critics' version contained a note in the opening scenes that the film is "based on the 9/11 commission report." That was omitted from the film aired Sunday. A disclaimer aired three times emphasized it was not a documentary.
"For dramatic and narrative purposes the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, as well as time compression," the note that ran before the movie said.
The note said the material is "drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 commission report and other published materials and from personal interviews." That differs from a note in the critics' version that said the dramatization "is based on the 9/11 commission report and other published sources and personal interviews."
Critics, such as historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., said it was "disingenuous and dangerous" not to include accurate historical accounts in the movie.
A scene in the movie depicting a team of CIA operatives poised in darkness outside of bin Laden's fortess in Afghanistan, ready to attack, was substantially cut down from the original. Pictures of the waiting Afghanistan operatives are interspersed with those of officials in Washington, who had to approve the mission.
The original version depicted national security adviser Samuel R. Berger hanging up on CIA chief George Tenet as Tenet sought permission to attack bin Laden. The movie aired Sunday did not include Berger hanging up.
The affect of the changes is to deflect specific blame. It ends with actor Donnie Wahlberg, head of the CIA team in Afghanistan, saying, "Are there no men in Washington?"
Another scene in the critics' cut pictured O'Neill asking Clarke on the telephone: "What's Clinton going to do (about bin Laden)?"
Clarke replies, "I don't know. The Lewinsky thing is a noose around his neck."
This was cut entirely from the film that aired Sunday.
Editors left intact a scene that had angered former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, portraying her as being behind a move to inform the Pakistani government in advance of a U.S. missile strike against bin Laden. The movie indicated that was a key factor in bin Laden getting away.
The movie, scheduled to air from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., finished at 10:40 p.m. ET.
ABC has said little about the controversy, and said Sunday it would not comment.
Thomas Kean, head of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks and a backer of the film, said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that he hadn't seen the final cut of the movie but urged Americans to watch it.
"If people blame Bill Clinton after seeing this, then the miniseries has failed," said Kean, the former Republican New Jersey governor. "That's wrong and it shouldn't happen."
John Lehman, another Republican commission members, said on the ABC News show that he's told the film is equally harsh on the administrations of President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush.
"And if you don't like the hits to the Clinton administration, well, welcome to the club," Lehman said. "The Republicans have lived with Michael Moore and Oliver Stone and most of Hollywood as a fact of life."
___
AP Television Writer Frazier Moore contributed to this report.
tomorrow???
To Be Continued..
:-)
Bump
Ditto, that's my take on the broadcast version too.
I think I like the change....
No--it's not just you! The original reference to the Republicans would have deflected a lot of anger in their direction; the edited version points it full bore at Clinton!
So far it seems to me that Clarke is being treated rather kindly.....
Tenet might have something to say....this could get interesting....how many times did he meet with Cinton?
No matter what was edited out of this, I believe the message is perfectly clear and whatever minor adjustments were or weren't made are trivia given some passage of time. In many ways, we should realize that the toning-down of direct personal blame against the Clinton-Albright-Berger troika will allow folks who watch this the opportunity to come up with their OWN conclusions. And that, as we say in sales, is usually a more powerful motivator.
The message (to me) is succinct: On WHOMEVER's watch it was back then; Nobody (other than a very few John O'Neill types) was taking it (the terrorist threat) seriously. Nobody put this scourge above their careers. Klinton: his career and legacy were more important. Berger and Albright, same story. These were the indecisive idiots who got played by their own PC mindset.
If that miserable stuck-up b**ch Madame Maddy gave away an OBL attack plan to the Pakis, so be it. It was the right thing to do. It was "our only choice". It might have been construed as..."
If Berger the thief couldn't muster the conscience to kill a few tribal women & children to take out OBL, it was the right thing to do. It was "our only choice".
For my money, these two were quite adequately portrayed as putzette and putz.
As portrayed, Tenet was hawkish on taking out Bin Laden and obstructed at every turn by Albright and Berger. I don't know if that's accurate or inaccurate.
There was, however, a fairly clear hierarchy of hawkishness portrayed, which I think was pretty darn accurate according to everything I've read. And starting at the top, with that embarassment of a CIC in charge, a ton of damage was done by PC thinking and worrying about the rights of fanatical, vicious killers. Regardless of who is or was at fault, if that is the lesson learned, I think part I was pretty damn good.
For sure.
Wow! You sure made it easy to judge the "Most Uneducated Post of The Month" contest.
If your drift is that the Democrats should have been careful about what they wished for (in cuts by ABC), I agree with you totally. That scene was absolutly wonderful as reedited!
I think that several scenes could have hardly been more damaging to the Clinton admisistration - portrayed as feckless, constipated by decision making, and unserious about being at war with killers America citizens !!
Only because Clinton couldn't argue that it didn't happen like that. Hee hee.
Stop being such a jerk.
Yeah, but I'm not sure who it helps. Clinton goes from looking distracted by those mean Republicans, to looking like a coward who won't take responsibility for his own actions.
Not exactly a rehabilitative edit.
Totally agree!
How many radical mosques are in North Korea?
Did he have the cutest smile or what?
"Nero FIDDLED
Clinton BLEW"
Monica BLEW.
That was tooooo easy.
Correct. I caught that too. Walhberg just hangs his head in embarrasment.
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