Under Fire, ABC Yanks Official Blog of 9/11 Docudrama

LINK TO STORY

Catherine

Finally, some of us aren't taking the smear tactics lying down.

Dean: 'Who funded this $40 million dollar slanderous propaganda?'


September 8, 2006


Referring to the controversial docudrama Path to 9/11, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is calling on ABC/Disney to reveal "who funded this $40 million dollar slanderous propaganda," in a DNC press release received by RAW STORY.

"It's deeply disappointing that ABC would put something on the air that has been proven to have factual inaccuracies about one of the most important events in our nation's history," said Dean in the press release. "ABC should not air this distortion of history."

Path to 9/11 writer/producer Cyrus Nowrasteh "has ties to an evangelical Christian group whose goals include 'transform[ing] Hollywood from the inside out,' according to research by readers of prominent blogs," Justin Rood reported for TPMmuckraker earlier today. "Path director David L. Cunningham is also involved in The Film Institute, an offshoot of the Hawaii-based global evangelical group, Youth With a Mission."

"The fact that the writer/producer of the piece is a well known conservative raises additional concerns and questions," said Dean. "The American people deserve to know who funded this $40 million dollar slanderous propaganda."

"Use of the public airwaves is a privilege conferred upon broadcasters in the public interest," Dean continued. "It comes with a responsibility to the American people and a responsibility to the truth."


LINK TO STORY

COMMENT: Dean makes an interesting point. What is the FCC saying about this?

SECRET RIGHT-WING NETWORK IS BEHIND ABC DECEPTION!


Less than 72 hours before ABC's "The Path to 9/11" is scheduled to air, the network is suddenly under siege.

On Tuesday, ABC was forced to concede that "The Path to 9/11" is "a dramatization, not a documentary." The film deceptively invents scenes to depict former President Bill Clinton's handling of the Al Qaeda threat.

Now, ABC claims to be is editing those false sequences to satisfy critics so the show can go on -- even if it still remains a gross distortion of history. And as it does so, ABC advances the illusion that the deceptive nature of "The Path to 9/11" is an honest mistake committed by a hardworking but admittedly fumbling team of well-intentioned Hollywood professionals who wanted nothing less than to entertain America.

But this is another Big Lie.

In fact, "The Path to 9/11" is produced and promoted by a well-honed propaganda operation consisting of a network of little-known right-wingers working from within Hollywood to counter its supposedly liberal bias. This is the network within the ABC network. Its godfather is far right activist David Horowitz, who has worked for more than a decade to establish a right-wing presence in Hollywood and to discredit mainstream film and TV production. On this project, he is working with a secretive evangelical religious right group founded by The Path to 9/11's director David Cunningham that proclaims its goal to "transform Hollywood" in line with its messianic vision.

Before The Path to 9/11 entered the production stage, Disney/ABC contracted David Cunningham as the film's director. Cunningham is no ordinary Hollywood journeyman. He is in fact the son of Loren Cunningham, founder of the right-wing evangelical group Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The young Cunningham helped found an auxiliary of his father's group called The Film Institute (TFI), which, according to its mission statement, is "dedicated to a Godly transformation and revolution TO and THROUGH the Film and Televisionindustry." As part of TFI's long-term strategy, Cunningham helped place interns from Youth With A Mission's in film industry jobs "so that they can begin to impact and transform Hollywood from the inside out," according to a YWAM report.

Last June, Cunningham's TFI announced it was producing its first film, mysteriously titled "Untitled History Project." "TFI's first project is a doozy," a newsletter to YWAM members read. "Simply being referred to as: The Untitled History Project, it is already being called the television event of the decade and not one second has been put to film yet. Talk about great expectations!"


READ MORE HERE

From the Daily Kos website, here are some powerful ways to get the pressure moving:

Call Disney at 1-818-560-1000 or 1-818-460-7477.

Call ABC at 1-212-456-7777 or 1-818-560-1000.

Please be polite, but firm, regarding why you find lying to the public about 9/11 to be offensive.

Steve Jobs is a major shareholder and board member at Disney. So it's not a big surprise that the movie is going to be available for free on iTunes. It certainly couldn't hurt to put a call into Apple's headquarters, to let them know you don't appreciate their willingness to disseminate this hateful fiction: (408) 996-1010

(SAME LINK AS ABOVE....scroll down)

I watched Glenn Beck last night and was amazed that he was agreeing with Bill Clinton about the movie. He also had one of the producers on and actually told her she was wrong also, when she started talking about the Dems wanting to stop the movie from being shown.

He mentioned well, now Conservatives did the same thing with the Reagan movie and got it pulled and played on Showtime. He then went on to talk about something that I think was right.

There are certain subjects that should be left alone and if talked about should be talked about in truth and the 9-11 is one of them. He had no problem with the movie being made, but, it should contain all the truths. He did mention that both Clinton and Bush played politics with Bin Laden and to that I would have to agree.


I know, I know.....watching Glenn Beck is not cool.....

There is a big difference. No one could point out anything innaccruate with the Reagan film. The right-wingers just didn't like the tone of it. So, the complicent media just pulled it.

On the other hand, there are several outrageous lies in the 911 film, as shown by the actual 911 commission report.

Don't compare the two.



Please explain how Clinton played politics with bin Laden. You lost me there.

Are you talking about when Clinton tried to kill bin Laden with a cruise missile strike, and the Republicans accused him of "Wagging the Dog"?

If that is what you consider "playing politcs" by Bill Clinton, you really do need to stop listening to Glenn Beck.

I am sick to death of people saying "both sides are equally guilty", every goddamn time the Republicans are caught redhanded and can no longer be defended.

Stop doing that.

Just because the Republicans are guilty of something doesn't automatically mean the Democrats are guilty too.

If you want to accuse the Democrats of something, fine. Then just do it, and document your case.

Don't just accuse Democrats by association with Republicans.

Thank you shoeless for saying:



Somehow the Dems get plastered with the same crap the Republicans continually pull. Anyone who can't see the difference between the two parties and their actions, isn't looking.

Media has done a great job of making people believe 'they are just two sides of the same coin' when they are so different.

Do I need to list voting records here?

If I am not mistaken and please correct the time frame, Clinton was busy handling the thing with Monica and was concentrating on that instead of trying to go after Bin Laden. But, that was not entirely his fault, he was trying to protect himself and the Conservatives continued to pressure.

It is hard in my opinion to do two things at the same time, each one requiring almost all your attention. But the Dems are not innocent of any wrong doing either. Both parties have dropped the ball. The difference is that the Bush admin is making everything personal and not in the best interest of the nation.

You are mistaken. You have been taken in by right-wing propaganda.

According to the 9/11 Commission Report (Link: pg. 199), when George W. Bush took over the White House, then-CIA Director George Tenet told Bush that he already had the authority from President Clinton to kill Bin Laden.

Roger Cressy, former NSC director for counterterrorism, has written, “Mr. Clinton was, in fact, ready and willing to undertake a special forces or other paramilitary assault on bin Laden, particularly after our missile attacks on bin Laden in the summer of 1998, and often pressed his senior military advisers for options. But Mr. Clinton's top military and intelligence advisers concluded that a commando raid was likely to be a failure, given the potential for detection, in the absence of reliable, predictive intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts.

Mr. Clinton approved every request made of him by the CIA and the U.S. military involving using force against bin Laden and al Qaeda."

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030922 ... -8355r.htm

The movie is a LIE! The right-wing Republicans and the corporate owned US media are LYING! This is nothing more than their latest attempt to reinvent history in order to use a horrible tragedy as a propaganda tool to save their sorry asses in the November elections. And the media is their willing tool.

Yes dori. Things are so bad for our country under the corrupt, incompetent, criminal, iron fist of the Republicans, that they and their corporate owned media can no longer offer any defense of their actions. So, they have merely fallen back on a pitiful defense of, "Well, the Democrats are just as bad."

It's ing. But, incredibly enough, it's working. Dumbass Americans by the millions are taking up the cry, "Democrats are just as bad! Democrats are just as bad! Democrats are just as bad!"

It's all the right-wing, regressive, neocon, murderers, and their wholly owned corporate media have left to retreat to, and it's working.

God help us.

ummmm sadie, most polls are showing that the bullshit by the bushicons is NOT working. that's why bush and cheney are now out front stumping thier neocon asses off.

the problem for us is to what lenghts are the bushicons willing to go to finalize thier dark slithering agenda.

the many questions that are beginning to surface about the events surrounding 9/11 are serving to give us many clues as to what they're up to.

By darn, it is those RED STATE SPEX alright. New fad. Everyone has to have them.

What really ticks me off is when liberals wear those RED STATE SPEX, and sometimes they DO!