"Wicked" Producer Marc Platt behind the inaccurate 9/11 ABC Mini-Series- Page 3

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 12:55am

Updated On: 9/8/06 at 12:55 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 12:56am

Which is so weird. Because I would assume that he had Winnie Holzman put the Wicked script through some sort of strainer to remove any of the political pulp (and there was plenty of it) from the source material.

[jimnysf]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 12:57am

Boycott "Wicked"!

[neddyfrank2]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 1:00am

FindingNamo- I would assume he did as well, because WICKED (the novel) is very political, and the show has none.


Pal Joey- I myself am angry at him for not INSISTING that the script be vetted by both Democrats AND Republicans. That was a stupid, STUPID mistake on his part.

Why is it Marc's duty to do that. Why not Patricia Heaton or the director?

I am just saying you are blaming one person when their were many many many involved. He is at blame, but so are many others. Maybe he is getting the blame here because he is associated with BROADWAY, and the others arent. Updated On: 9/8/06 at 01:00 AM

[jimnysf]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 4:37am

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
ABC's film flap
BY JAMES GORDON MEEK and HELEN KENNEDY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, September 8th, 2006

ABC is frantically recutting its $40 million miniseries about 9/11 amid a blistering backlash over fictional scenes that lay the blame on the Clinton administration.
Also feeling the heat was Scholastic, which yanked a classroom guide tie-in to the program.

Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, the former head of the 9/11 commission and a paid consultant on the ABC miniseries, told the Daily News yesterday that some controversial scenes in "The Path to 9/11" were being removed or changed.

"ABC is telling me that the final version I'll be pleased with," said Kean, softening his own previous defense of the movie.

Unmollified, Democrats continued to demand that ABC yank the two-night docudrama that former President Bill Clinton's spokesman called "despicable." It is scheduled to start airing Sunday.

And Clinton's lawyer sent Kean a chiding letter expressing "shock" that a man so dedicated to accuracy had worked on a movie "that has been widely criticized for its libelous historical inaccuracies."

The chorus of outrage - ranging from Clinton cabinet members to liberal bloggers to 9/11 families to ordinary moms canceling trips to Disneyland - put ABC and parent company Disney under tremendous pressure just days before the movie's premiere.

First to go was a made-up scene showing Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger hanging up on CIA operatives who were moments away from killing Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. "You will not see that in that way in the final edition," Kean said.

The Clinton White House did scotch several opportunities to kill Al Qaeda's founder because intelligence was sketchy. But unlike in the film, the CIA was never steps away from Bin Laden, nor did Berger hang up on agents in the field, Kean admitted.

Driven by the Internet's main liberal Web sites, the outrage over ABC's dramatization was reminiscent of the 2003 conservative furor that forced CBS to pull an unflattering Ronald Reagan biopic. Phones rang off the hook and e-mail boxes were clogged all day at Scholastic Inc., ABC and Disney. "We're getting slammed," said one frazzled ABC staffer.

Scholastic caved quickly, yanking educational materials tied to the movie that critics said linked Iraq to 9/11 and glossed over the grim situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We determined that the materials did not meet our high standards for dealing with controversial issues," Scholastic Chairman Dick Robinson said.

ABC released a defensive statement calling criticism of the film "premature and irresponsible" because it was still being edited. The network sent out preview DVDs weeks ago.

Democrats, noting that Republicans have vowed to campaign on terrorism this fall, saw a political conspiracy. "I think they wanted to run this before the midterm elections," said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.).

Several top Democratic senators, including Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, accused ABC boss Bob Iger in a letter of airing "right-wing political propaganda" and obliquely threatened his broadcast license.

The senators said ABC should be a responsible "beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves" and cancel the movie.

Asked if he had apologized to Clinton for inaccuracies in the movie, Kean quipped, "No, he was out campaigning against my son yesterday, so I didn't reach out to him at all!"

Kean's son is a GOP Senate candidate in New Jersey.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 10:06am

I hate thses docu-dramas that don't present the facts, accurately. Exactly why I detested Oliver Stone's JFK. That, and the presence of the dull-as-dishwater, Kevin Costner.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 10:12am

Asked if he had apologized to Clinton for inaccuracies in the movie, Kean quipped, "No, he was out campaigning against my son yesterday, so I didn't reach out to him at all!"

Kean's son is a GOP Senate candidate in New Jersey.

In what universe does Tom Kean think this is a dignified and appropriate response?

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 10:40am

And in addition, the presentation of events regarding the US activities post USS-Cole are challenged.

It seems that many things that could be revised against the Clinton Administration have been, and many things against the Bush Administration have been downplayed or whitewashed. Here is the first start of the editorial in today LA Times:


9/11 Miniseries Is Bunk

Former ambassador to Yemen says ABC traded fact for drama in portraying events after the 2000 bombing of the destroyer Cole.

By Barbara Bodine, BARBARA BODINE was U.S. ambassador to Yemen from 1997-2001. She is a visiting scholar at MIT's Center for International Studies.

September 8, 2006

ON THE MORNING of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans — and the world — froze, saddened and angry. Five years later, we stop to remember those we lost and those who have sacrificed in our defense since, and to reflect on what we must learn. History will define us not by the events of that day but by who we choose to become as a result.

Regrettably, ABC has chosen not to document but to dramatize this most critical of times. Its miniseries, "The Path to 9/11," opts for fiction when fact is needed and chooses mythmaking when the candor of history is called for. The 9/11 commission report tells the story with clear-eyed honesty, precision and studious impartiality. The ABC drama does not. The 9/11 commission spent hours interviewing virtually everyone connected not just with the events of that day but those involved in counter-terrorism over 25 years — Republican as well as Democrat. ABC did not.

Many senior officials from President Clinton's administration, along with key members of the 9/11 commission, have publicly challenged the distortions and inaccuracies of "The Path to 9/11." From the part of the story I know firsthand, ABC has done the American people a disservice. Drama may be more profitable than reality, but at what cost to our national history?

One of the myths perpetuated by ABC played out in the steamy port city of Aden, Yemen, in October 2000, using an FBI agent out of New York, John O'Neill, and the U.S. ambassador to that country. According to the mythmakers, a battle ensued between a cop obsessed with tracking down Osama bin Laden and a bureaucrat more concerned with the feelings of the host government than the fate of Americans and the realities of terrorism. I know this is false. I was there. I was the ambassador.

The rest of the article can be in the link below.

9/11 Miniseries Is Bunk Updated On: 9/8/06 at 10:40 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 10:46am

Thanks for posting that LA Times editorial.

I'm hearing from my LA friends in the TV and film indistry that we New Yorkers and Washingtonians have no idea how major an upheaval this is in Hollywood.

And to answer an earlier question, Neddy, Marc Platt is receiving a lot of the heat because he was the only one of the producers to give early quotes to the media, and his comments were defensive and NOT good damage control.

Posted: 9/8/06 at 10:52am

Everyone knows that most, not all, gay people are Clinton lovers and Bush haters. This thread isn't discussing or providing new information about Broadway, only preaching to the choir and attempting to spread hatred.

[YouWantitWhen????]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 10:57am

And, there have been radio hosts here in LA with a decidedly right-wing slant who have viewed the supposedly finished product; they viewed it weeks ago and loved it. It was only once people who were not on the right, or who were familiar with the actual 9/11 Report and what it said, got wind on how blame was completely shifted from Bush to Clinton, and the revisionist history that this "docudrama" included, that the uproar started and cuts started to be made.

ETA - nice to stereotype. Sorry that I don't match your assumptions. Updated On: 9/8/06 at 10:57 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:04am

Wait a minute. Patty "When is a feminist not a feminist?" Heaton's involved in this thing?

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:07am

When she's involved, Pat Boone, Dean Jones and Reggie White can't be far behind. I think it's time to peel back this onion some more.

Oh yeah, Reggie White's dead. Damn.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:12am

Jimnysf, I have no intention of watching this either. As I was getting ready to watch GMA this morning, I decided to watch another network.

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:21am

I should kick myself for replying to Tom14850, but whatever.

Is it suprising that a lot of gay people don't like Bush? I mean do you really pay attention to what he and his administration are doing to the gay community in order to pander to his core group?

[jimnysf]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:23am

I'll be watching "The Wire" on HBO. That is, as long as Marc Platt is not one of the producers of that show.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:24am

Is it suprising that a lot of gay people don't like Bush?

Pardon my immaturity but...I just can't help it.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:25am

a karmic double post... Updated On: 9/8/06 at 11:25 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:31am

This thread isn't discussing or providing new information about Broadway, only preaching to the choir and attempting to spread hatred.

I think you have "this thread" confused with the miniseries it is discussing.

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:49am

I guess it's time to leave this board. Bye.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 11:50am

Interesting article from today's NY Times. The editing is going on in LA, and Marc Platt is "monitoring" it from London, while the director is "being consulted" in Hawaii.

Which means, in Holywood spin, that ABC is doing it WITHOUT them.

===

ABC Said to Re-Edit Key Parts of 9/11 Show
By PATRICK HEALY and JESSE McKINLEY

Under growing pressure from Democrats and aides to former President Bill Clinton, ABC is re-evaluating and in some cases re-editing crucial scenes in its new mini-series “The Path to 9/11” to soften its portrait of the Clinton administration’s pursuit of Osama bin Laden, according to people involved in the project.

Among the changes, ABC is altering one scene in which an actor playing Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser, abruptly hangs up on a C.I.A. officer during a critical moment in a military operation, according to Thomas H. Kean, a consultant on the ABC project and co-chairman of the federal Sept. 11 commission.

Mr. Berger has said that the scene is a fiction, and Mr. Kean, in an interview, said that he believed Mr. Berger was correct and that ABC was making appropriate changes.

The reassessment came as two Clinton aides mounted an unusual attack last night on the motives of Mr. Kean, a Republican and a former governor of New Jersey. In a letter to Mr. Kean, the two aides, Bruce R. Lindsey and Douglas Band, wrote that his defense of the mini-series “is destroying the bipartisan aura of the 9/11 Commission,” on whose findings the project is partly based. They asserted that Mr. Kean was driven by payments from ABC or his own partisan politics.

Mr. Kean, who called Mr. Clinton a good friend, said it was outrageous to suggest he was being swayed by money or politics, and added that any fee he received would be donated to charity. He said he stood by the film because he believed it would draw attention to the commission’s security recommendations, many of which have not been put into effect, and because the film did not pretend to be a documentary.

Yet Mr. Kean, as well as other members of the commission, did say they were concerned that their widely praised investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks might be diminished in some way by the mini-series.

“Mini-series often make things more dramatic by fictionalizing,” Mr. Kean said. “I don’t think the fictional moments reflect on the work of the commission, but I do hope that the controversy doesn’t tarnish it. ABC is trying to be as accurate as possible.”

Democrats and allies of Mr. Clinton unleashed full-throated appeals to ABC yesterday to cancel the broadcast, which is scheduled for Sunday and Monday nights. The Senate Democratic leadership sent a letter to Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent, saying that broadcasting the film “would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility.”

The national Democratic Party drew more than 100,000 signatures in 24 hours to a petition of complaint that it plans to give to ABC today.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, one of 10 senators at a news conference yesterday where the mini-series came up, left before she could be asked about it. A small throng of reporters who followed her out of the building toward her office were kept at bay by her aides.

The changes to the mini-series are still being made inside an editing suite in Los Angeles, with a variety of creative staff members and executives, including Marc Platt, the executive producer, who has been monitoring the editing from London, and David L. Cunningham, the director, who is being consulted at his home in Hawaii.

Mr. Kean said that two other parts of the film are also under review. One is a scene where an actress playing former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is apparently obstructing efforts to capture Mr. bin Laden. The other part suggests that Mr. Clinton was too distracted by impeachment and his marital problems to fully focus on Mr. bin Laden.

Mr. Platt said that he could not offer specifics about what scenes were being examined, but that editing was going on and “will continue to, if needed until we broadcast.”

“From Day 1, we’ve examined any issue or question that’s arisen,” he said. “And we’ll continue to do so until the last possible moment.”

Mr. Kean said he was surprised by the outcry, since most of the critics have not seen the film. He said Mr. Clinton had spoken directly to Mr. Iger last Friday; Clinton aides declined to comment.

Several 9/11 commission members said yesterday that they respected Mr. Kean immensely but that they were concerned about the ABC project and his role in it. One of them, Timothy J. Roemer, a Democrat, said he called Mr. Kean yesterday to urge ABC to make changes. Another, Jamie S. Gorelick, a former Clinton administration official, wrote Mr. Iger yesterday that the nation and schoolchildren would be poorly served if they drew lessons from the mini-series that were inaccurate.

Scholastic, the children’s publishing company, which had been working with ABC to use “The Path to 9/11” as a teaching tool, said yesterday that it was removing materials related to the film from its Web site. A spokeswoman said a new study guide was being prepared that would explain the difference between a docudrama and a documentary.

Anne E. Kornblut contributed reporting from Washington.
ABC Said to Re-Edit Key Parts of 9/11 Show

[jimnysf]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 12:14pm

Now, Harvey Keitel says the film should be corrected:



Harvey says

Updated On: 9/8/06 at 12:14 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 1:36pm

Fascinating analysis of how this happened and what's at stake for Bob Iger and Disney by Matt Stoller of MyDD.com

===

Matt Stoller
09.08.2006
Time to Take Away Disney's Political Candy

I looked through the FEC filings this morning, and found some interesting and expected information about Disney's chief, Robert Iger. Though he gives generously to both parties, Robert Iger isn't a wingnut. He's a neoliberal businessman who believes that pro-business moderates from both parties should run the country.
I imagine he's probably pro-choice, and he thinks of himself as sympathetic to the Democratic Party, though not what he perceives as the crazy part of the party. This is true of most of the big media moguls, like Sumner Redstone of Viacom. They are Democrats, but they want political favors from Republicans. Of course, these guys need to realize that Iger's going to ruin their nice big media business if he doesn't step up, and step up soon.

I imagine that Iger's in a tough spot. He doesn't hate Clinton, in fact he probably likes him. Iger's probably superangry that Bill Clinton is speaking out against this movie, as Iger thought this movie was mostly accurate. I mean he's the President of Disney, he's busy, he didn't read the 9/11 Commission report (who did?), and both Clinton and Bush made mistakes, right? That's what the movie says, so he was told (if he was told anything at all). Iger probably wasn't paying attention to ABC entertainment, thinking that they had this under control, especially the sensitive details. His subordinates promised a really cool new marketing campaign using the internet and bloggers instead of the traditional expensive Hollywood marketing junkets. This movie was edgy, hip, but serious, a real examination of a somber moment in American history. Right, Mr. Iger?

Given what I know about how big corporations think, I bet the political slant to the movie wasn't strictly intentional on Disney's part. I bet that Disney's ABC division used a set of PR firms and flacks that decided that 9/11 belonged to conservatives, and so hired conservative movement players to produce, market, and distribute this film. They got Tom Kean, so there was adult supervision. What a perfect event setup, to make ABC the place for the country to turn on 9/11. In this fragmented universe, wouldn't it be great to have a time when the country came together, on one place, to really understand this event through the medium of television. And how wonderful if this were on ABC. It would be AN EVENT.

Ha ha ha.

Of course, Mr. Iger was pitched a total fraud by his subordinates, who probably had it pitched to them in turn, with pitches upon pitches until you get to a nest of right-wing marketing people who think of themselves as internet savants, but are actually just kind of stupid and tied in to the dregs of the right-wing blogs. And now Iger probably feels tricked by his subordinates, who have allowed Disney to aid and abet a right-wing propaganda campaign. The higher-ups just didn't notice what was happening because their corporate controls are awful - ABC Entertainment made this piece of **** instead of ABC News.

The fallout from this is bad, but it's going to get worse. Disney has a full-on PR and political disaster on their hands, and they've handled it horribly. With real but oblique threats to their very broadcast licensing schema, ABC has clammed up and gone into full 'counterproductive big company cluster**** mode', obviously lying to the public about the film still not being completed, and insulting its critics to boot.

That's not smart. Remember, the people doing the lying to the public on Disney/ABC's behalf are the same people who thought that this film would be AN EVENT, or at least ok'd it.

There is a window of time now for Mr. Iger to step up, an 'apologize for Tylenol tampering' moment. He needs to cancel this miniseries, and take personal responsibility for inadequate oversight. He should privately fire the people responsible for this total disaster of a project, and apologize. That's the only way to restore Disney's brand among a large group of very angry people. Be brave, be public, and be honorable. It'll work.

And what will happen if he doesn't? Well, it's not just boycotts. Those are probably going to happen, but that's not what Iger has to worry about, or his corporate brethren. You see, Disney has a number of political objectives, as is obvious from the donor patterns of their corporate executives and their lobbying behavior.

One of them is the egregiously awful broadcast flag. Disney is leading the effort to give Hollywood control over how your TV and TiVo are built and what you can do with programs you watch. This is in the Stevens bill before the Senate. Democrats didn't really have any reason to deny Disney its political candy, since Disney was thought to be responsible with its content, or at least not overtly insane. Their credibility on this front is going quickly, and donations to Chuck Schumer aren't the palliative they once were.

Another is copyright extensions, which Disney has used to keep its perpetual license on characters like Mickey Mouse, who should by now have fallen into the public domain. Democrats didn't really have any reason to think that this was anything but a dispute over intellectual property, with corporations like Disney having motives that are only as pure as Snow White, versus pirates bent on stealing songs and movies by hardworking artists. Now that Disney's credibility is going, lobbyists for Disney are going to find it tougher on Capitol Hill, and lobbyists for the Creative Commons movement are going to find a much easier reception. Iger knows there's a movement bent on routing around his unreasonable and political control of free speech through copyright extremism. He's got a choice on whether he gives that movement a whole lot of real political power.

And thing Disney wants is media consolidation. Disney wants to buy everything, since media is seen as a scale business. It's pretty obvious to Democrats if this movie airs that Disney is not a responsible public steward of the airwaves it controls right now. Why should they be allowed to engulf even more assets? Like Creative Commons, the free media movement is growing rapidly, and it is a real movement that could receive a dollop of political power thanks to Disney's exceptionally and impressively poor judgment.

Mr. Iger has a choice about what to do here. I don't imagine he'll make the right choice, but he might.


Matt Stoller is a blogger at MyDD.

Time to Take Away Disney's Political Candy

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 1:52pm

Heads should roll over this. I look forward to seeing the fallout.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/8/06 at 4:08pm

An Open Letter from Historians to Robert Iger:

===

Dear Robert Iger:

We write as professional historians, who are deeply concerned by the continuing reports about ABC's scheduled broadcast of "The Path to 9/11." These reports document that this drama contains numerous flagrant falsehoods about critical events in recent American history. The key participants and eyewitnesses to these events state that the script distorts and even fabricates evidence into order to mislead viewers about the responsibility of numerous American officials for allegedly ignoring the terrorist threat before 2000.

The claim by the show's producers, broadcaster, and defenders, that these falsehoods are permissible because the show is merely a dramatization, is disingenuous and dangerous given their assertions that the show is also based on authoritative historical evidence. Whatever ABC's motivations might be, broadcasting these falsehoods, connected to the most traumatic historical event of our times, would be a gross disservice to the public. A responsible broadcast network should have nothing to do with the falsification of history, except to expose it. We strongly urge you to halt the show's broadcast and prevent misinforming Americans about their history.

Sincerely,

Arthur Schlesinger
Sean Wilentz, Princeton University
Michael Kazin, Georgetown University
Lizbeth Cohen, Harvard University,
Nicholas Salvatore, Cornell University;
Ted Widmer, Brown University;
Rick Perlstein, Independent Scholar;
David Blight, Yale University;
Eric Alterman, City University of New York.
Maurice Isserman, Hamilton College
(List in formation)