9/11: Whom to blame?

Jake,
Listen, you may want to distance ABC News from ABC Entertainment, and even though the news people can’t go down and kick some sense into your propag… excuse me, entertainment people, you folks share the same airwaves. ABC cannot simultaneously distort the truth and report the truth. If there is a disconnect, then it needs to be fixed, not excused.
Purposely twisting the history of 9/11 for political objectives (yes, that is what is happening) is propaganda pure and simple, and it is wrong. Get it together and stand up for truth. You’re a journalist, right?
Adam Tambone

Why is it that only the Liberals are asked to be understanding … It’s only a movie we’re told. It just isn’t that JT. It is about whether or not people are held to account for their actions. Your don’t blame us (when you own website refers to those who oppose the program with the derogatory “Clintonistas” moniker), rings a bit hollow. I guess it’s not your fault, you can’t dictate what the website people do, and they can’t tell you how to do your news. Is that going to be your defense? You are all a part of ABC, one division funds the other, does it not? Unless ABC is willing to run a screen crawl that reminds people that the names are only coincidentally the same as those in charge at the time, it’s time to pull the propaganda off the screen.
Let’s focus on who actually committed on the crime that fateful day and bring OSAMA to justice instead of the 1,000 other things that the WH tries to distract us with as they try to cling to power this fall.

I can’t understand how ANYONE can defend a made up dramatization which lies about true events leading up to 9/11.
How can anyone, regardless of political slant, not be insulted by the production of a film that contradicts the truth? Sometimes its not just opinion, but fact.
If we all don’t stand up to defend the truth, we have lost sometime much more sacred than the twin towers.
It is inconceivable that anyone would desecrate the memory of the victims of 9/11 and the soldiers who try to defend our freedoms by producing a drama which lies about the events leading up to the war. How can anyone defend this?
Sure there’s blame. I’d like to hear about the blame. But tell the truth, not a fictional dramatization with a political agenda. Do a true documentary following the 9/11 commission report.
Anything less cannot be defended.
It is our duty as Americans to demand change when our media produces propaganda. Otherwise we become the same as the dictatorships and communist countries being fed politically controlled untrue messages. We claim to be fighting for our freedom, our way of life. We can’t let ABC, ABC news or Disney get away with such a false fabrication.

Mr. Tapper:
First, that’s a bit condescending to tell people that their time and energy might be better spent in some other way. Actually, if the news media hadn’t abdicated its role since 9/11 of holding govt officials of all political parties accountable, the 9/11 commission recommendations probably would have been implemented already. Interesting how ordinary Americans now have had to step in to hold our media AND govt officials accountable ourselves.
Second, it’s not a liberal vs conservative argument either (and shame on ABC News for using the term “Clintonista” repeatedly). People of all political viewpoints are standing up for truth in historical works such as this. Please enjoy the following sample of conservative commentators in the last 48 hours courtesy of ThinkProgress.org:
John Podhoretz, conservative columnist and Fox News contributor:
The portrait of Albright is an unacceptable revision of recent history and an unfair mark on a public servant who, no matter her shortcomings, doesn’t deserve to be remembered by millions of Americans as the inadvertent (and truculent) savior of Osama bin Laden. Samuel Berger, Clinton’s national security adviser, also seems to have just cause for complaint. [NYPost, 9/8/06]
James Taranto, OpinionJournal.com editor:
The Clintonites may have a point here. A few years ago, when the shoe was on the other foot, we were happy to see CBS scotch “The Reagans.” [OpinionJournal, 9/7/06]
Dean Barnett, conservative commentator posting on Hugh Hewitt’s blog:
One can (if one so chooses) give the filmmakers artistic license to [fabricate a scene]. But if that is what they have done, conservative analysts who back this movie as a historical document will mortgage their credibility doing so. [Hugh Hewitt blog, 9/6/06]
Chris Wallace, Fox News Sunday anchor:
When you put somebody on the screen and say that’s Madeleine Albright and she said this in a specific conversation and she never did say it, I think it’s slanderous, I think it’s defamatory and I think that ABC and Disney should be held to account. [Fox, 9/8/06]
Captain’s Quarters blog:
If the Democrats do not like what ABC wants to broadcast, they have every right to protest it — and in this case, they had a point. [Captain Quarter’s blog, 9/7/06]
Bill Bennett, conservative author, radio host, and TV commentator:
Look, “The Path to 9/11″ is strewn with a lot of problems and I think there were problems in the Clinton administration. But that’s no reason to falsify the record, falsify conversations by either the president or his leading people and you know it just shouldn’t happen. [CNN, 9/8/06]
Seth Liebsohn, Claremont Institute fellow and produce of Bill Bennett’s radio show:
I oppose this miniseries as well if it is fiction dressed up as fact, creates caricatures of real persons and events that are inaccurate, and inserts quotes that were not uttered, especially to make a point that was not intended. [Glenn Greewald’s blog, 9/7/06]
Richard Miniter, conservative author of “Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror”:
If people wanted to be critical of the Clinton years there’s things they could have said, but the idea that someone had bin Laden in his sights in 1998 or any other time and Sandy Berger refused to pull the trigger, there’s zero factual basis for that. [CNN, 9/7/06]
Brent Bozell, founder and president of the conservative Media Research Center:
I think that if you have a scene, or two scenes, or three scenes, important scenes, that do not have any bearing on reality and you can edit them, I think they should edit them. [MSNBC, 9/6/06]
UPDATE:
Bill O’Reilly, Fox News pundit:
Ok, we’re talking about the run up to 9-11 and this movie that they’re re-cutting now and they should because it puts words in the mouth of real people, actors playing real people that they didn’t say and its wrong. [O’Reilly radio show, 9/8/06]

Don’t give in to Clinton and don’t back down. Show this miniseries the way you intended originally to show it. You are very up front in saying that it is NOT a documentary so Clinton should just shut up and watch or change the channel. I didn’t hear any Democrats complaining when Farenheit 911 was shown AS A DOCUMENTARY! It seems that the double standard is alive and well because Democrats only want free speech for themselves and no one else. DO IT!

Why is ABC so defensive in defending this piece of right-wing garbage?

OK Jake, ABC brags about their “Excellence in Journalism” awards and people trust the network to be accurate. The disclaimer about The Path to 9/11 being entertainment just isn’t going to cut it. There are a lot of people who will see it and believe it. ABC has been my favorite network for over 30 years but now that is coming to a screeching halt. ABC is well aware of what is going on, the bias toward the Bush Administration just before the election. I am extremely disappointed in your network’s lack of journalistic ethics and will be tuning in to CBS from now on.
ALS

I’m neither a fan of the 911 commission, that interviewed many Bush Admin officials without the benefit of them being under oath, nor what I’ve heard of The Path to 911.
I agree with others here that you cannot distance yourself from the ABC banner, when the permanent boycott of ABC/Disney begins ABC News of course will be included. That the corporate snake of ABC has many heads is not a reason for ABC News to be excluded from a boycott. (nice try)
Jake Tapper’s energies might be better spent writing his managers and insisting ABC Entertainment pull the fabricated GOP smear movie altogether, while it can.
Further. I do hope a new Democratic Congress will get to the bottom of just how this obvious propaganda piece came about. A free $40 million dollar movie that only benefits the GOP before an election, stinks of payola or quid pro quo activity to me. I do hope the truth comes out, but it looks like the truth won’t come from ABC News, no matter how Jake Tapper attempts to show how ABC News and ABC Entertainment are separate.
If they are so separate the do the investigative reporting on how this mess got started and by whom. (reports on the Internet show some right wing Christian groups are involved – there’s a lead for ya Jake) Rather then this “it wasn’t us story”. Part of the problem Jake, not part of the solution. Sorry. Nice try though.

What problem with tampering with public information and defaming one political party less than 60 days before a highly contested election don’t you get?
Propaganda is the problem.
It’s bad enough you in ABC News and other media are Bush’s lapdogs. ABC is presenting something most people will think is true and not fiction!
Please brush up on how propaganda works.

You want to know the truth about why and how this crock-u-mentary evolved? Check out Crooks and Liars’ website.
{“The Path to 9/11″ is produced and promoted by a well-honed propaganda operation consisting of a network of little-known right-wingers working from within Hollywood to counter its supposedly liberal bias. This is the network within the ABC network. Its godfather is far right activist David Horowitz, who has worked for more than a decade to establish a right-wing presence in Hollywood and to discredit mainstream film and TV production. On this project, he is working with a secretive evangelical religious right group founded by The Path to 9/11′s director David Cunningham that proclaims its goal to “transform Hollywood” in line with its messianic vision.}

I am appalled and saddened by ABC wanting to air the pseudo documentary. Here we are, about to celebrate,(horrible word) the fifth anniversary of a horrible event and ABC decides to politisize the event. I thought that yesterday’s interview with President Bush showed where ABC stands. Our country has never been this divided. I have always been proud to be an American and would like to see patriotism in this country be revived-we are all Americans no matter what our party affiliation. I no longer want to watch ABC television.

JT-
How can you possibly defend the production and public broadcasting of such a bundle of mistruths and misinformation which have most obviously been created to make the Idiot Bush and his Administration of Inepts look good?
How can you possibly defend the public broadcasting of this republican misinformation campaign? Even those individuals involved in the official 9/11 investigation have said this ‘docufantasy’ that ABC is so looking forward to broadcasting is obvioualy an attempt to make an unwarranted political statement. It’s so obviously politically prejudiced that it’s a joke to anyone with a grain of intelligence.
How can you possibly defend the plan to air this distortion of everything that it claims to be, and without the interruption of commercials, no less? How? How? How?
I could go on and on, but the final fact is that this is just another example of the main stream media having turned into the propoganda machine of the Republican Party and the corporatism that runs this country.
Bushism is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations, and guess what JT? You, and media apologists like you, hiding their heads in the sand instead of seeing the truth, are a part of the media problem that this country now faces. Propoganda and mistruths are the menu of the main stream media, and that’s precisely why more and more people every day are switching off the tv news and not reading the MS press.
This ‘documentary’ could hold it’s own against Charles Anslinger’s “Reefer Madness” as politically propogated trash arising from the paranoia and misinformation of the Republican right, and in no way is it possible to justify either the production or the distribution of this garbage.
If this misinformation is in fact broadcast as scheduled, the
Democratic masses are going to bring Disney to it’s knees, and ABC could very well be, and should be next.
Peace.

$40 Million dollars spent on a Republican smear-piece two months before the mid-term elections, the result of which will determine whether Bush and his cronies are investigated for their criminal actions.
Tell us, Jake: Where did this money come from, and who is behind this project?
rms

I have a simple question, one that doesn’t seem to be asked, and one that I have yet to hear a decent answer to:
9/11 was a horrific reality. ABC has called “The Path to 9/11″ a docudrama. Other statements from ABC (and from the film-maker) explicitly state that there are “fictionalized” elements.
So my question: How is the memory of the people who died on 9/11 and the families who survived enhanced in *any* way by presenting anything less than 100% true and verified history? Is this the best ABC can do?
Oh, and yes, I know that ABC News wants to distance themselves from ABC Entertainment over this mess. Sorry, but you’re both part of the same company, and I as a viewer see no reason to form any distinction between the two. While the people who work in the two divisions may make clear distinctions between themselves, I don’t work for you. All I see is the same logo.

When is ABC going to come out with “The Path to Iraq” To bad we didn’t stick around with a few more troops in Afghanistan. The following can act as the start for a script.
9/11 – An Attack Against Humanity
I read a very interesting note on meetings between Iran, China, and Russia at misneach blog a couple months ago. I wonder why I haven’t heard much about this anywhere else? The strategic value of developing closer relationships between theses countries is clear to see, for anyone who is paying attention.
China’s rapid growth is fueling an insatiable appetite for Oil.
Russia is looking for any market to sell its products and services. Is Iran hiring? Have they posted any want ads for a nuclear scientist?
Both China and Russia are permanent members of the UN Security Council. Any UN sponsored sanctions against Iran will likely face a veto from one or both of these nations, based upon their own strategic reasons. What is America to do? The military option is unrealistic.
Today, America is over extended militarily and out of touch diplomatically. I am most saddened by the reckless disregard for diplomacy, civility, and sportsmanship the Bush Administration has displayed since 9/11/01. They have managed to pull defeat and division from the jaws of victory and cohesion in the real “war on terror.” Just look at Afghanistan if you doubt this assertion.
The world mourned with us and for themselves after Sept. 11th. The attack on the World Trade Center was not only an attack upon America. It was an attack against all humanity. Citizens of far too many other countries died on 9/11 in NYC.
The other countries and thousands of families who lost loved ones at “ground zero” are fighting their own personal wars on terror everyday. Their lives have been changed forever. How dare we allow our “public servants” to exploit their sufferings to launch a preemptive war on Iraq, while not bringing Bin Laden to justice?
QuestionItNow – Still In Iraq

Jake,
Tsk. A real docu-drama would show that President Clinton held a terrorism meeting once a week and that President Bush held NO terrorism meetings but did take plenty of vacations while the terrorists were getting. How about a nice clip of the Bush ‘character’ clearing brush on the back 40 while the terrorists made plans?
This isn’t even a good piece of drama. A real director, writer or producer would certainly have felt the need for a split screen of Bush sitting like a bump for seven minutes while the towers burned. We don’t get that from this. We get political propaganda from right-wingers.
Report on David Cunningham and Cyrus Nowrasteh, director and writer of this trash. I’m reading things like “dedicated to a Godly transformation and revolution TO and THROUGH the Film and Television Industry.” And I want some journalistic reporting.

As it turns out, “The Path to 9/11″ is a covert project of an evangelical Christian group bent on ‘taking back’ Hollywood. Unbelieveable, but frighteningly true. The so-called innaccuracies are purposeful, the lies intentional. See Max Blumenthal’s item at the Huffington Post. ABC should pull the program or face sanction for allowing the public airways to be used for a covert political agenda.

I think you are an arrogant fool to think that you are a good enough filmmaker for Bin Laden to get out of his hidey-hole to watch your stupid film. I am one of the countless millions who have vowed to never again watch ABC – ABC NEWS or any ABC product until they withdraw and apologize for this dreck. You are causing this network to jump the shark, the affiliates to fail to serve their communities, and by showing it during prime time, exposing children to traumatizing violence. I hope that many stations get fines because of your program. I know I will be writing the FCC demanding the permit to broadcast of my local station be revoked or at the very least a maximum fine be imposed. I hope stations across the country suffer the same fate. Either way I will not be watching ABC anymore.

by the comments posted here it is obvious more amd more that the Dems have no “plan” other than to attack Bush. That is scary, as they want to lead this country. Quit the bashing and do what you are elected to do.

Whether the “Path to 9-11″ is entertainment or history, ABC has an obligation to listen to the people who actually were there. If they say that the “fictionalized” scenes are untrue, then they should be changed. Otherwise ABC is committing slander.

This would not be an issue, had Western Governments in general, and the United States in particular, treated other nations fairly in every dealing, as we have PRETENDED to do…We are little Eichmanns…with our heads in the sand, and our leaders are no better than the Nazis that they rave about, so ironic when both of Bushes grandfathers were supporting Hitler financially from NY.

If I go scuba diving and don’t wear the appropriate breathing equipment and then drown do I blame the water? There are people who want to kill americans. We need people in charge of keeping americans safe doing their jobs. If you failed to take action to eliminate a clear threat then that is your legacy.

Definetly blame Islam for the 911-attacks..But see Terrorism for what it really is..the FACTS are all about Justice..the world has handed crime a daily NOTICE to evict the premises..along the way the crimminals have gone to lengths to sell drugs and hamper the family w/prostitution..taking on personalites that eventually went so far as to include ID-fraud useing technology..When technology finally came up and bit their head off also..they realized that the END was Not only Near..but days ago..even years past they just turned themselves inside-out to be Black Marketeers and drug Dealing Money Grubbers..SOOoo..who to blame for 911/??/I would blame the past for concealing the truth about itself..lieing too itself about Life and God..all the time saying that Subversion was not Subversion but some sort of intellectualism..I think that the need to have the TRUTH was the WHY..there seemed no Military response to the Hi-jackers of that day..there has been a fight around the world over the issue of hi-jacking Planes/most times the reasoning was some Psycho was looking for his personality w/a Bomb..I agree with the President in his fight against Terrorism..because his fight against all other crimes has led him to this spot..The reality of innocent death was to be the definite Author of democracy as Islam needs its day in court(once again)..Democracy is the Cure for Terrorism..NOT..some ambluant SENSE of one best interests/facets vs. facts/and the detractors can be said to NOT HAVE the STOMACH for democracy.