Will ABC pull "The Path to 9/11"?

From Daily Kos, by way of Variety.com.

"The Path to 9/11" is looking a lot like "The Reagans, Part II."

Bill Clinton loyalists are demanding wholesale changes to the upcoming miniseries -- and while ABC is making some snips, the alterations, insiders say, may not please the Dems.

But a bombshell decision may happen anyway: Sources close to the project say the network, which has been in a media maelstrom over the pic, is mulling the idea of yanking the mini altogether.

For those unaware of what this is all about, ABC has produced a six-hour butt-numbing 'docudrama' about events leading up to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It is set to air on two nights, September 10 and 11. Only problem is, they take a great deal of creative license, which tries hard to implicate the Clinton Administration in failing to prevent the attacks.

The film was written by Cyrus Nowrasteh, an avowed conservative, produced by Marc Platt, a PR hack with the Bush Administration, and directed by David Cunningham, who's merely a fundamentalist nutjob. The movie allegedly places much of the blame for failing to prevent the attacks on the Clinton administration while whitewashing the failures of the Bush administration. How much was it 'tidied up'? The infamous "Pet Goat" book that Bush was reading in the classroom in lieu of responding to terrorist attacks, is excised.

The blogosphere, and of course, the Democratic Party, are furious at what they see is a six hour infomercial for the Republican Party. Not many people are happy at ABC's attempt to rewrite history, one that does not jibe with the official 9/11 Commission Report, upon which it claims to be based.

Unfortunately, ABC is not exactly responding with tact. They have offered screener versions of the movie in advance, but unless you're Rush Limbaugh or even an obscure rightwing blogger, you're outta luck. Even if your name happens to be Clinton or Albright. Obviously, former President Clinton's people are rightly pissed off about the whole thing, demanding that ABC actually attempt to tell the truth. Democrats are threatening to hit 'em where it hurts, just like Republicans did when CBS attempted to air "The Reagans" in 2003.

Even people who were intimate with the events of the film, such as Richard Clarke, think the movie is full of lies.

ABC's response earlier this week was to haul the whole stinkin' mess into the shop for minor repairs. Plus, they claim it is a mere dramatization and obviously want everyone to see it first before they criticize it. In other words, tough shit, unless somebody hits them in the bottom line.

Ironically, ABC is owned by Disney, the company that refused to distribute an actual documentary about the events surrounding 9/11 - "Fahrenheit 9/11". Of course, "Fahrenheit 9/11" went on to become the biggest grossing documentary of all time, and one of the biggest hits of 2004.

Many of the critiques of ABC and Disney do not bring up the most tragic thing about this film, namely the exploitation of a very tragic day. The Republican Party is notorious for their crass and vulture-like exploitation of this tragedy, weilding fear as a weapon as they walk all over thousands of dead bodies. This whitewashing of history is truly appalling.

More links:

911Timeline.net
9/11 Timeline by Paul Thompson
The Memory Hole
Wikipedia entry on the film
The Path to 9/11, a Google Bomb