Subject: FW: A Despicable, Irresponsible Fraud Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 16:23:34 -0500 Message-ID: <BDD0A3EABE40F04A8C7200805EDE5A6A0488D59C@PEPSI.uwec.edu> From: "Nowlan, Robert A." <RANOWLAN@uwec.edu>
And in case anyone wants another venue through which to protest this
upcoming 9/11 docudrama, here's one I received earlier today, with
instructions on how to follow through and send a message in protest.
(I seem to be on a whole host of Democratic Party lists of late without
ever signing up for them myself . . . hmm . . . ).
Bob Nowlan
________________________________
From: Tom McMahon, Democratic Party
[mailto:democraticparty@democrats.org]
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 1:47 PM
To: Nowlan, Robert A.
Subject: RE: A Despicable, Irresponsible Fraud
The Democratic
Party<http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.c
om/8082/images/email/demparty.gif>
Dear Robert,
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. Take a minute right now and tell Disney president
Robert Iger to keep this right-wing propaganda off our airwaves:
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911 <http://www.democrats.org/pathto911>
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.
We should all be deeply concerned and disappointed that ABC would air a
film that has been proven to have factual inaccuracies about one of the
most important events in our nation's history. It's particularly
disturbing given that the producer of the piece is a well known
conservative. It's incomprehensible how something like this could even
get on the air.
In a few hours, we deliver letters from over 150,000 outraged Democrats
to ABC's front doorstep. You still have time to make your feelings
known. Join the thousands standing up for President Clinton and our
party -- tell Disney president Robert Iger to keep ABC's right-wing
propaganda off our airwaves:
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911 <http://www.democrats.org/pathto911>
Thank you,
Tom
Tom McMahon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
>>> "Tom McMahon, Democratic Party" 9/6/2006 5:53 pm >>>
Dear Robert,
<http://www.democrats.org/pathto911>
Does a major national broadcast network want to stain itself by
presenting an irresponsible, slanderous, fraudulent, "docu-drama" to the
American public?
Not if you and I have the last word -- but either way, we're about to
find out.
The ABC television network -- a cog in the Walt Disney empire --
unleashed a promotional blitz in the last week for a new "docudrama"
called "The Path to 9/11". ABC has thrown its corporate might behind the
two-night production, and bills it as a public service: a TV event, to
quote the ABC tagline, "based on the 9/11 Commission Report".
That's false. "The Path to 9/11" is actually a bald-faced attempt to
slander Democrats and revise history right before Americans vote in a
major election.
The miniseries, which was put together by right-wing conservative
writers, relies on the old GOP playbook of using terrorism to scare
Americans. "The Path to 9/11" mocks the truth and dishonors the memory
of 9/11 victims to serve a cheap, callous political agenda. It
irresponsibly misrepresents the facts and completely distorts the truth.
ABC/Disney executives need to hear from the public and understand that
their abuse of the public trust comes with a cost. Tell Walt Disney CEO
Robert Iger to keep this right-wing propaganda off the air -- we'll
deliver your message:
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911 <http://www.democrats.org/pathto911>
This story is breaking quickly. The bias of the "docudrama" only became
known when ABC began circulating previews recently. Less than two weeks
ago, 9/11 Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste confronted a lead writer
of "The Path to 9/11" after watching the first half of the miniseries at
a screening, but most of what we know amounts to bits and pieces because
ABC chose to screen the miniseries to conservative bloggers and
right-wing media outlets exclusively. Almost none of the Democrats
portrayed in the film have even been asked for their thoughts.
But we still know enough, thanks to news accounts and crack research, to
fact check "The Path to 9/11" as a biased, irresponsible mess. Here's
what you need to know:
* Richard Clarke -- the counterterrorism czar for the Clinton
administration, now himself a consultant to ABC News -- describes a key
scene in "The Path to 9/11" as "180 degrees from what happened." In the
scene, a CIA field agent places a phone call to get the go ahead to kill
Osama Bin Laden, then in his sights, only to have a senior Clinton
administration official refuse and hang up the phone. Sandy Berger,
President Clinton's National Security Advisor, called the same scene "a
total fabrication. It did not happen." And Roger Cressey, a top Bush and
Clinton counterterrorism official, said it was "something straight out
of Disney and fantasyland. It's factually wrong. And that's shameful."
* Another scene revives the old right-wing myth that press
reporting made it impossible to track Osama bin Laden, accusing the
Washington Post of blowing the secret that American intelligence tracked
his satellite phone calls. In reality, responsibility for that blunder
-- contrary to "The Path to 9/11" -- rests with none other than the
arch-conservative Washington Times.
* The former National Security Council head of counterterrorism
says that President Clinton "approved every request made of him by the
CIA and the U.S. military involving using force against bin Laden and
al-Qaeda," and the 9/11 report says the CIA had full authority from
President Clinton to strike Bin Laden. Yet chief "Path to 9/11"
scriptwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh, a friend of Rush Limbaugh, says the
miniseries shows how President Clinton had "frequent opportunities in
the '90s to stop Bin Laden in his tracks -- but lacked the will to do
so."
* ABC asked only the Republican co-chair of the 9/11 Commission,
Tom Kean, Sr., to advise the makers of "The Path to 9/11". The producers
optioned two books, one written by a Bush administration political
appointee, as the basis of the screenplay -- yet bill the miniseries as
"based on the 9/11 Commission Report."
This is a picture of bias -- a conservative attempt to rewrite the
history of September 11 to blame Democrats, just in time for the
election.
Tell Walt Disney president Robert Iger that you hold his company
responsible -- and that this community demands that ABC tell the truth:
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911 <http://www.democrats.org/pathto911>
ABC is trying to use of the airwaves -- airwaves owned by you and me,
and loaned to broadcasters as a public trust -- to slander Democrats and
sell a slanderous, irresponsible fraud to the American people, and
they're shamefully doing it just weeks away from Election Day.
The Walt Disney Corporation could have given Americans an honest look at
September 11. Instead, the company abandoned its duty to the truth --
and embraced the fiction known as "The Path to 9/11."
But ABC isn't the only company pushing this gross revision of history.
ABC has enlisted the reputable education and children's entertainment
company Scholastic, Inc. to send 100,000 letters to high school
teachers, urging them to show students "The Path to 9/11". Scholastic
has also created a discussion guide for teachers to use to encourage
students and their families to watch this irresponsible fraud and then
discuss it in school. The discussion guide does not in any way point out
the concerns and criticisms that have been raised about the validity and
accuracy of the film.
We've got to stop this now.
ABC/Disney must face an accountability moment. You can ratchet up the
pressure on ABC by sending your own letter to Walt Disney CEO Robert
Iger -- tell him to keep this propaganda off their air.
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911 <http://www.democrats.org/pathto911>
We'll keep you up to date as this story evolves.
Thank you,
Tom
Tom McMahon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
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