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ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Outraged Too

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 05:31:13 PM EST
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The Path to 9/11, which tries to shift the blame for 9/11 will be viewed by tens of millions on ABC Sunday and Monday without commercial. It is pure Republican propoganda and packed with lies, aimed at influencing the upcoming November elections. As a friend e-mailed me earlier today:

"Path to 9/11" is a docudrama written by a little know arch-conservative, Cyrus Nowrasteh. The main advisor to the film was former Republican Governor Tom Kean. There were no Democratic advisers. In the run up to the showing, several media personalities and political officials have been sent copies of the film to review. This includes Rush Limbaugh and several rightwing bloggers. Requests from progressive media has been denied. Formal requests from high level Clinton administration officials have been denied.

Bill Clinton is justifiably outraged:

A furious Bill Clinton is warning ABC that its mini-series "The Path to 9/11" grossly misrepresents his pursuit of Osama bin Laden - and he is demanding the network "pull the drama" if changes aren't made. ....[Madeline]Albright and former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger also dashed off letters to Iger, accusing the network of lying in the miniseries and demanding changes.

Clinton pointedly refuted several fictionalized scenes that he claims insinuate he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to care about bin Laden and that a top adviser pulled the plug on CIA operatives who were just moments away from bagging the terror master, according to a letter to ABC boss Bob Iger obtained by The Post.

More from the e-mail I received:

The movie takes audacious liberties with the truth. Some of the most egregious examples are:

1) The movie portrays a scene in which CIA operatives have Bin Laden in their sight. They call a high level official (Sandy Berger) for permission to strike. In the film Berger refuses and hangs up on the CIA operative. This never happened in real life. CIA Director Tenet never once recommended that Clinton officials take action against Bin Laden due to lack of good intel.

2) The movie indicates that the Madeline Albright character tipped off the Pakistanis that the US was about to take out Bin Laden. This also never happened in real life.

3) The movie conveniently omits the infamous scene where President Bush sat emotionless, reading "My Pet Goat" after hearing that our country was under attack on September 11th. This did happen in real life.

Our civil liberties have been under attack for several years now. A cowed national press has done nothing to stop this power grab. And now our airwaves have been taken over by political propaganda. Officials at ABC and Disney have become tools of politicians who want to make sure that those who are in power, stay in power. Whether you are Democrat, Republican, or Independent, this affects you. If Americans cannot get accurate information or are inundated with false information about the world we live in, it will be the downfall of our Democracy.

< The Spirit of the Essence of the Path to 9/11 "Dramatization" | N.C. Tosses Search of Private Parts >

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    ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Outraged Too | 23 comments (23 topical)
    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 06:32:59 PM EST
    The Path to 9/11... is pure Republican propoganda and packed with lies, aimed at influencing the upcoming November elections. Lies and terrorizing are all they have left. They are finished without them. The NeoClowns Are at it Again:
    Anyone who backs this war drive will look back and regret it forever. Anyone who still wants to get in the car these neoclowns are driving is going to be eternally embarrassed. You're going to think - what was I thinking? Consider this a preemptive intervention. Get out of the clown car and slowly back away. There is still time for you to pretend you were on to them the whole time.*
    *italics mine

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 06:37:58 PM EST
    If things don't change they will stop as they are. A little something for your entertainment. Doesn't it make it so much more convincing when the speaker can string more than three words together.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#3)
    by Johnny on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 08:39:32 PM EST
    Ahhh... that old devil, the liberal media strikes again. Also, when all else fails, blame Clinton! Yay! Right-wingers are so weak.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 10:00:58 PM EST
    Yea, it's really just a piece of Republican proganda. Here's the New York Times review http://tinyurl.com/sxznm
    The inserted news clips of Mr. Bush are not exactly inspiring. He is shown sweaty and dismissive in jogging shorts, dodging questions about tax cuts. Condoleezza Rice -- who is impersonated by Penny Johnson Jerald, who played the conniving wife of David Palmer in "24" -- cannot be too thrilled with her moment on screen either. She humors, but does not heed, the counter-terrorism adviser Richard A. Clarke; actually she demotes him.
    As I've said in other blogs, I think the democrats are shooting themesleves in the foot by discouraging people from watching a film that criticizes the current administration, just because they want to protect the previous one. B

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#5)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 11:48:36 PM EST
    Jeff, Normally I might agree with you. However, it is not a matter of defending one particular political party. It's about getting out as factual an account as possible. Heck, the producers at ABC are generally looked at as liberals. Maybe thay are not the Libs many presuppose them to be. The timing of a "docudrama" of this type is transparently obvious. The debate over the "War" on terror is the most serious matter that occupies our current events. "The Path to 9/11" DISTORTS recent historical events at a time when we are still processing those events. In truth the events of today are a close continuation of the trauma of 9/11/01. This negatively impacts the mass perception of the facts surrounding the attack. That breif disclaimer shown before they roll the tape is quickly forgotten as the audio and visual history lesson begins. Mix the facts with fictional drama (24) and they blend together into a fascinating tale. It's easy for impressionable people to register these "dramatized" images as the truth in their subconscious.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 03:35:24 AM EST
    TL: Is the friend part of the former Townhouse email list?

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 07:31:41 AM EST
    That would be propaganda. If you get the headline wrong, the rest of the post will generally be as inane. That's proven to be the case here.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#10)
    by Kevin Hayden on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 08:05:08 AM EST
    It's about time that someone said something critical about that cad, Bill Clinton. After getting away with shooting both Kennedys and Martin Luther King, I thought he'd be prosecuted, but he wasn't even arrested. And then he got away with downing the space shuttle and selling Tow missiles to Iran. Again, nothing. He was in NY when 9-11 happened. What more proof do we need that he's a mass murderer?

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#9)
    by Slado on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 09:20:09 AM EST
    I only wish Clinton had shown this kind of ferocity when he actually had a chance to catch Osama. Bygones. Like Jeff said nobody looks good in retrospect when the events leading up to 9/11 are discussed. The presidents, the politicians, even us are to blame for 9/11. None of us took terrorism seriously so our politicians and government didn't take it serious enough leading up to 9/11. To draw conclusions from a movie is ridiculous and for Clinton to get all hot and bothered because he is shown to not have taken Osama seriously enough is silly. Of course he didn't. If he had he would gone after him in '93 when he bombed the WTC the first time. But he didn't and 9/11 happened. Why didn't he? Because the american people didn't ask him to. Simple as that.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#11)
    by squeaky on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:01:34 AM EST
    ABC has edited out the BS evidentially. Their lawyers must have come to the same conclusion as Michael Froomkin at Discourse.Net.
    The network has in recent days made changes to the film, set to air Sunday and Monday, after leading political figures, many of them Democrats, complained about bias and alleged inaccuracies. Meanwhile, a left-wing organization has launched a letter-writing campaign urging the network to "correct" or dump the miniseries, while conservative blogs have launched a vigorous defense.... After much discussion, ABC executives and the producers toned down, but did not eliminate entirely, a scene that involved Clinton's national security advisor, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, declining to give the order to kill Bin Laden, according to a person involved with the film who declined to be identified because of the sensitivities involved.
    link via HuffPo

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#12)
    by Che's Lounge on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:03:37 AM EST
    What is the purpose of this docudrama? To entertain? Then we have a serious problem with our choices of what entertains us. The deaths of over 3000 people is not entertainment. To educate? Then there is going to be more trouble than Disney/Hewitt/ABC ever imagined. It's THEIR version of events. Sanitized. Redirected. Rewritten history. To indoctrinate?

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:15:34 AM EST
    I was wondering what the response to this idiocy would be here, and I can't say I'm at all surprised. No one has seen this movie yet, including the people at Disney, who say it's still in final production, yet everyone is sure that it paints the Clintons and the Democrats badly (as if the fact that they didn't do any better of a job protecting the nation from attack than Bush has was an unknown) and you're all upset about it. And not one word about the rather transparent threats to ABC's broadcasting license by Congressional Democrats over what is, in truth, unhappiness about the content of a movie. So what happened to all you First Amendment absolutists? Finally found a subject about which you prefer open censorship? Is this the brave new future you would have Ned Lamont lead us to?

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:15:34 AM EST
    Whatever it's claimed purpose is, it's effect will be that many people will unquestioningly take it as fact, simply because "I saw it on tv - therefore it must be true - ABC wouldn't lie, would they?" That is it's real purpose. ---edger

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:15:34 AM EST
    Whatever it's claimed purpose is, it's effect will be that many people will unquestioningly take it as fact, simply because "I saw it on tv - therefore it must be true - ABC wouldn't lie, would they?" That is it's real purpose. ---edger

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#15)
    by Bill Arnett on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:30:51 AM EST
    I told ABC & disney: In light of ABC's decision to air the mockumentary, "Path to 9/11, through a little effort on my part, my family and I have totally blocked ABC & ABCF, both low and HiDef channels on 47 TVs so far, and that's just a start. I also notified ABC that this blockage would be PERMANENT and that I would be writing their sponsors that they are wasting their money advertising on ABC. I emailed KGO in San Francisco and, I think, most important of all, explained to them that they are totally irrelevant, as any shows I did use to watch will sooner or later be released on dvd and I would buy them then, relegating ABC to "nothing" status. And I'm serious. No ABC station or affiliate will ever again be seen on any of these screens, and by the end of today, I will have helped block them on 74 TV sets belonging to family and friends. I urge everyone to do the same. Cancel the station, buy the programs you like and enjoy them sponsor-free.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#16)
    by Bill Arnett on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:52:34 AM EST
    Oh, Slado- You are so misinformed that it would be funny, if it weren't so pitiable and pitiful. In the 1993 WTC bombing, Clinton's FBI and DoJ caught the perpetrators, honored their civil rights, put them on trial, obtained convictions, and put them away in prison where they rot, not as martyrs and heroes, but as common criminals doing time. He didn't have to invade and destroy two countries, still not catch the criminal bin Laden, and forever destroy America's credibility as a country of laws. You also do not mention the disruption of the Millennium plot on Clinton's watch, or that he twice fired cruise missiles in attempts to kill bin Laden, or that he gave the CIA standing orders to capture or kill Osama. Clinton also advised bush that the greatest threat he faced was Osama and bush ignored all warnings until 9/11 happened on BUSH'S watch. And you need not cover the USS Cole incident. It happened while Clinton was in office, but it was not known that al-Qeada was involved until after bush had taken office. Don't be like your man, bush. Read a little, study some history, learn about the facts of the matter before sponsoring or authoring such tripe. You could probably sign up at the "Armstrong Williams School of Journalism" though.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#17)
    by Sailor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 10:52:50 AM EST
    I only wish Clinton had shown this kind of ferocity when he actually had a chance to catch Osama.
    links dude, links!
    ABC has edited out the BS evidentially.
    They couldn't posssibly have corrected the faults in such a short amount of time. Dialog, looping, sound track, continuity all take way more time.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#18)
    by David on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 06:10:44 PM EST
    While this may or may not be a right wing conspiracy, I find it intriguing that those who scream loudest are those same individuals who lauded Fahrenheit 911 as a good fact-based documentary. Such two-faced hypocrisy doesn't serve our cause.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 06:10:44 PM EST
    Bill becasue Clinton didn't capture or kill Osama 9/11 happened. Same goes for Bush. The documentary covers both presidents in passing blame. But liberals like censorship so they want to cover up the mistakes of Clinton and embelish the mistakes of Bush. Believe me I understand this all to well. It is 20/20 vision to claim Clinton should have killed/captured Osama before hand but it is ture. Pointing it out doesn't mean somebody is being untruthful. Same goes for Bush and I'm a Bush man. He was on the same path as Clinton until 9/11 happened. Just ask Clarke.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Sep 08, 2006 at 06:10:44 PM EST
    caught the perpetrators, not the people who put it into action. as a leftist, I might be shy about WTC I given that one of the lawyers of the movement, Lynn Stewart, was convicted of assisting one of its architects in getting his bloody messages out from prison. has been lauded for her treachery numerous times here as well.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Sep 09, 2006 at 10:56:04 AM EST
    President wants Senate to hurry with new anti-terrorism laws July 30, 1996
    WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton urged Congress Tuesday to act swiftly in developing anti-terrorism legislation before its August recess. "We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue," Clinton said during a White House news conference. But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, doubted that the Senate would rush to action before they recess this weekend. The Senate needs to study all the options, he said, and trying to get it done in the next three days would be tough.


    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#22)
    by Sailor on Sat Sep 09, 2006 at 12:16:24 PM EST
    While this may or may not be a right wing conspiracy, I find it intriguing that those who scream loudest are those same individuals who lauded Fahrenheit 911
    why do wrongwingers have such a difficult time with the difference between private theatres and PUBLIC airwaves? if disney wanted to show it in a theatre, fine, we're used to seeing fantasy from them. Not even ABCs news division wants anything to do with this travesty.

    Re: ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Out (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 10:12:27 AM EST
    People, people, people... As long as you continue to respond in a partisan manner to this and any other current controversy, you will continue to react in the manner desired by the corporate elite who are actively manipulating our government AND us in order to achieve their Machiavellian ends. My friends accuse me of wearing rose colored glasses, but I prefer to believe that ALL Americans want to know the truth, and that ALL of us want to repair our democracy AND our tainted reputation among other nations. We are going to HAVE to work together to accomplish this noble goal. Acknowledging that we are being deliberately misled to promote a corporate agenda is a good beginning.

    ABC, Disney and Propoganda -- Bill Clinton Outraged Too | 23 comments (23 topical)