I received this in an e-mail yesterday and the follow up reply today..
Just thought I'd share it with those that may not have heard about this movie..and those who might care
This is it: crunch time for getting the slanderous ABC television docudrama "The Path to 9/11" yanked off the air. The network schedule has this slanderous attack on Democrats slated to start on Sunday night, September 10, at 8 o'clock -- and as long as it stays on the schedule, we have work to do.
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911/send
Here's the good news: the suits at ABC and the Walt Disney Company have started panicking under pressure, thanks to your ferocious response to the outrageous decision to put this irresponsible miniseries on the air. But until Disney quits defending its plan to broadcast conservative propaganda -- fraudulently presented to Americans as "based on the 9/11 Commission Report" -- the company should plan to keep taking every bit of heat we dish out.
Here's a quick catch-up on developments over the last 48 hours:
- President Clinton, through his attorney, rebuked ABC for producing a "factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate" miniseries -- and walked the network through three make-believe scenes in the "the Path to 9/11" that defame people and misrepresent events during his administration.
- Clinton's spokesman later stepped up the pressure, condemning Disney as "despicable" for "airing a fictional version of what is a serious and emotional event for our country. No reputable organization," he said, "should dramatize 9-11 for a profit at the expense of the truth."
- The families of September 11 victims have weighed in on the controversy, telling "entertainers" not to "promote misleading or incorrect information as fact to the public."
- House and Senate Democratic leaders hammered Disney president and CEO Robert Iger, in letters that questioned the company's commitment to its "reputation ... as a corporation worthy of the trust of the American people and the United States Congress."
- Scholastic has pulled teaching materials off its website and has scrambled to adopt a plan to help teachers show students "the differences between factual reporting and a dramatization," but is still encouraging teachers to show their students this propaganda.
Thanks for helping to make all this happen by joining over 150,000 Americans who told Disney president Robert Iger to keep this cheap right-wing miniseries off our airwaves. But our work isn't done. Before we deliver your letter today, tell your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues to insist that Disney and ABC live up to its duty to tell the truth:
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911/send
Thank you,
Tom
Tom McMahon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee


Comments: 19
Do you Bush supporters ever bother to notice anything?
Barb...
Yeah, ABC started back-tracking yesterday after all the pressure was laid on them.
Big difference.
They are free to make whatever the hell they want, but they need to be truthful about it containing 'creative liberties' and they need to NOT sell it as something worthy of being used as a teaching tool.
http://www.democrats.org/page/pt/pathto911/
I watch a fair amount of TV...I know I shouldn't, but sue me, I like it and with shows slanting to both sides the surest way to not be "lead by the nose" by either side is to turn the channel or hit the off button when you find yourself offended. Telling the network via petition that I have no right to view this as produced and make my own assessment of its facts is censorship and it truly is a double edged sword.
If they choose to abuse that public trust, by broadcasting false, partisan propoganda in a deliberate effort to sway public opinion weeks before an election, then they should be held accountable.
I'm very sorry, Apu, but the public airwaves ARE given to these companies to broadcast freely to the public. They have a duty, as recipients of this free bandwidth use, to insure that they use it in a judicious, rightful manner, and not for broadcasts of false propoganda.
"That is what CBS news and MSNBC does on a daily basis."
First, let's leave MSNBC out of this, since they are a cable company, and thus are not subject to the same laws that those who broadcast on the free airwaves are.
Secondly, what specific issues of contention to you have with CBS, and have you made your complaints known to others, in order that they may be met and resolved?
Same thing I did when CBS aired phoney documents weeks out of the '04 election. Watched, mulled, went to sleep, got up to find that they were bullsh*t, moved on.
Thanks, now where's my check?
You asked "all right wingers": "What would you do if ABC was airing a "docudrama" that showed President Bush and Cheney *planning* 911 like a lot of conspiracy theorists say?"
If ABC was airing the "docudrama" you describe, I would not watch it. I might write them an angry letter, or, if I was really upset, I might boycott their other programs. I would express my disgust about the program to others (eg friends, acquaintances, or on Gather). However, if I saw government officials (eg members of Congress or the administration, or government bureaucrats) writing threatening letters to ABC, or "suggesting" that ABC withdraw or edit or add disclaimers to its docudrama, I would absolutely oppose their action as censorship. I would support ABC's right to air its viewpoint, no matter how outrageous, offensive, dishonest, or misleading I thought it was.
I have always thought that the real test of whether one supports the principle of freedom of speech is whether one will defend that principle no matter how despicable one considers the content of that speech to be. Anyone can support freedom of speech when he/she agrees with the expressed viewpoint.
My question to Barbara F., Steph B., Clark, and everyone else who approves of the letter sent by the Democratic members of Congress to ABC, or of government pressure on ABC to withdraw or edit its miniseries, or of future government retaliation against ABC:
Do you really want the government (eg politicians and bureaucrats) to be the arbiter of what is truth and what is propaganda in a television program, or in a radio program or newspaper for that matter? Do you really want the government deciding what viewpoints you are to be permitted to see and hear?