Latest Clinton Letter to Bob Iger at ABC

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/9/06 at 11:54am

Dear Bob,

Despite press reports that ABC/Disney has made changes in the content and marketing of "The Path to 9/11," we remailn concerned about the false impression that airing the show will leave on the public. Labelng the show as "fiction" does not meet your responsibility to the victims of the September 11th attacks, their families, the hard work of the 9/11 Commission, or to the American people as a whole.

At a moment when we should be debating how to make the nation safer by implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, "The Path to 9/11" calls into question the accuracy of the Commission's report and whether fabricated scenes are, in fact, an accurate portrayal of history. Indeed, the millions spent on the production of this fictional drama would have been better spent informing the public about the Commission's actual findings and the many recommendations that have yet to be acted upon. Unlike this film, that would have been a tremendous service to the public.

Although our request for an advance copy of the film has been repeatedly denied, it is all too clear that our objections to "The Path to 9/11" are valid and corroborated by those familiar with the film and intimately involved in its production.

-- Your corporate partner, Scholastic, has disassociated itself from this proect.

-- 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean, who served as co-executive producer on "The Path to 9/11," has stated that he raised concerns about the accuracy of several scenes in the film and that his concerns were not addressed during production.

-- Harvey Keitel, who plays the star role of FBI agent John O'Neill, told reporters yesterday that while the screenplay was presented to him as a fair treatment of historical events, he is upset that several scenes were simply invented for dramatic purposes.

-- Numerous Members of Congress, several 9/11 Commissioners and prominent historians have spoken out against this movie.

-- Indeed, according to press reports, the fact that you are still editing the film two days before it is scheduled to air is an admission that it is irreparably flawed.

As a nation, we need to be focused on preventing another attack, not fictionalizing the last one for television ratings. "The Path to 9/11" not only tarnishes the work of the 9/11 Commission, but also cheapens the fith anniversary of what was a very painful moment in history for all Americans. We expect that you will make the responsible decision to not air this film.

Sincerely,

Bruce R. Lindsey
Chief Executive Officer
William J. Clinton Foundation

Douglas J. Band
Counselor to President Clinton
Office of William Jefferson Clinton

[jimnysf]

Posted: 9/9/06 at 11:56am

Keep the pressure on! No more right wing lies and their manipulation of the American people.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 9/9/06 at 3:04pm

Scholastic is a competitor of my companys.....I knew they'd pull away once this stuff started.
ABC needs to follow.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 12:59am

This is why Clinton hates this film so much:



the scumbag screenwriter inserted a gratuitous scene in which the Taliban shoots at Clinton's head on a screen.

Thanks ABC/Disney. Thanks Cyrus Nowrasteh. Thanks Marc Platt.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 1:09am

My heavens. Weren't the good old conservatives all bent out of shape not too long ago about a movie in which their beloved Ve Doble was on the receiving end of a bullet? Remember the huge stink over an innocuous CNN ad or something like that in which crosshairs appeared over Bush?

I guess they've been holding their murder Clinton fantasies in so long that it's all hunky dory.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:10am

Link to Tom Shales's review in the Washington Post:

ABC's Twisted 'Path to 9/11'

By Tom Shales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 9, 2006; Page C01

Factually shaky, politically inflammatory and photographically a mess, "The Path to 9/11" -- ABC's two-part, five-hour miniseries tracing events leading up to the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- has something not just to offend everyone but also to depress them.

The docudrama -- allegedly produced as a warning to the United States that the attacks, or something like them, could happen again -- falls clumsily into traps that await all those who make fictional films claiming to be factual. Except this time, the event being dramatized is one of the most tragic and monstrous in the nation's history, not something to be trifled with....

n an attempt to layer a coat of visual veracity over the film, it's shot in the style of some news footage -- the hand-held camera jerking, bouncing, panning wildly. Faces are framed in absurdly intense close-up, so intense it's not always easy to tell whom you're looking at. The gratuitous camera movement and the insistence on reducing people to eyes or noses or mouths become oppressive after only two hours, much less five. This isn't cinematography; it's vivisection.

But aesthetic objections pale in comparison to the legitimate complaints of those who resent the film's being passed off as truth when it apparently is riddled with errors. These are dismissed in a glib disclaimer acknowledging "composite and representative characters and time compression . . . for dramatic purposes." How much drama needs to be added to 9/11?

The film is prominently billed as being based on the report of the 9/11 commission, but one must read the fine print: Also acknowledged, although far less conspicuously in the credits, are three books on the subject.

In a report on "NBC Nightly News" on Thursday, unnamed Clinton administration officials were quoted as saying that some scenes in the film are "pure fiction." Pure fiction doesn't mix well with fact. Executive producer Marc Platt's quoted defense: It was "not our intention to distort." Whatever the intention -- and Democrats have a right to be suspicious of any product of the conservative-minded Walt Disney Co., which produced the film and owns ABC -- distortion unfortunately seems to have been the outcome.

"The Path to 9/11" appears intent on meting out punishment, not only to some of those portrayed in it but also to viewers who try to make it through the whole grueling assault -- an assault on the senses that may also be an assault on the truth.
ABC's Twisted 'Path to 9/11'

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:17am

Can't wait for the movie, who is making the popcorn? This will be great!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:29am

SPOILERS:
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the planes hit the building.
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[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 9:34am

Not before Clinton, Albright, and Burglar bungle it all up...
Updated On: 9/10/06 at 09:34 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 10:22am

It is just as egregious showing someone shooting GWB (even though you hate him )as it is with Clinton. Both are wrong

Had no intention of watching it & still will not watch it

[jimnysf]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 11:06am

There are many other choices tonight including a "9/11" documentary that doesn't distort history:

#1 is the return of the best show on tv: "Wired" on HBO.

Also tonight:

Sunday Night Football and
Season Premieres of:
"The Simpsons"
"American Dad"
"Family Guy"
An updated version of the award Emmy and Peabody Award winning "9/11" on CBS. This is the documentary narrated by Robert DeNiro and filmed at the WTC the day it happened. It has been updated to include new interviews with some of the firemen featured in the original broadcast.

http://www.cbs.com/specials/911/

[Elphaba]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 11:09am

thanks for posting that Jim, I had no plans to watch the other

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 12:34pm

I have a feeling most will not be watching this - if nothing else, because football is on.

I really wonder if it is not going to be pulled before tonight.

They could to the season finale of Grey's and Lost and probably draw better ratings.

Or, how about Band of Brothers, which appears to be more factually accurate at this point?

Or, just re-run C-SPAN of the hearings - at least that is accurate.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 12:38pm

Jeez, I had no idea it was The Simpsons season premiere tonight. Thanks for the heads up. 18 seasons already.

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 12:43pm

Can't wait for the movie, we'll post a review later.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 12:45pm

Enjoy - I am sure the ratings will need all the help it can get. Use double butter while you are at it.

BTW - I am sure there are Clinton targets you can buy at some Right Wing website to further fulfill the fantasies of this film.

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 12:51pm

No fantasies here today: the NY Times has that covered with the Cheney article.

Just looking for entertainment, and a truly theatrical event.

The Ratings won't need any help at all, the publcity generated by the Clintons and their posse will guarantee a ratings bonanza.

It should be quite a night!

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 1:00pm

See that was the difference, most of us were looking for facts, not a theaterical event or entertainment. The facts speak for themself, and are horrifying enough.

We will see what the overnight ratings are for day 1. I am betting not too good. Manning vs. Manning seems much more compelling right now, as does the return of The Wire.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 1:01pm

The fact that 9/11 and any of the elements surrounding it could be viewed as a "theatrical event" is absolutely nauseating.

[Chanticleer148]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 1:09pm

Politics is the original theater of the absurd.

[colleen_lee]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 1:19pm

Do you ever stop crying?

Why on earth, when you feel you're being so unfairly stifled, would you continue to put yourself through this?

As Ben Franklin said: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

ETA: The offending post has been deleted, so this post is irrelevant.

Updated On: 9/10/06 at 01:19 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/10/06 at 1:23pm

Ah, but the Ben Franklin quote remains ever-relevant in The Case of Chanticleer.

Updated On: 9/10/06 at 01:23 PM