ABC Slams New Iraq Documentary, Ignores Own 9/11 Right-Wing Fantasy
With this weekend's upcoming mockumentary "The Path to 9/11," Disney and ABC are breaking dangerous new ground in the conservative propaganda war. Even as the ABC network follows in the footsteps of Mel Gibson and The Passion of the Christ in "mobilizing the base," ABC News on Sunday declared Robert Greenwald's new documentary "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" a left-wing hatchet job "produced like a political campaign."
A pre-election salvo designed to pin the blame for the September 11 attacks on Bill Clinton and the Democrats, the "Path to 9/11" is right-wing revisionist history packaged as fact. Laughably billed as "based on the 9/11 Commission report", ABC's "Path" is the work of conservative activist Cyrus Nowrasteh. Nowrasteh, who Rush Limbaugh deemed "a friend of mine," was featured in a panel in 2005 titled "How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood's Next Paradigm Shift."
According to early reports, the distortions, smears and inventions in "The Path to 9/11" are legion. "The Path" features a CIA agent blaming the Washington Post for revealing that the U.S. was intercepting Bin Laden's calls, when the disclosure actually came from reliable conservative mouthpiece, the Washington Times. A critical scene showing Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger blocking a 1998 CIA assault on Osama Bin Laden is made up out of whole cloth. Berger labeled Nowrasteh's fiction "a total fabrication. It did not happen." He was seconded by Richard Clarke, former counterrorism chief for Presidents Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, confirmed this scene never happened and was completely made up. As ThinkProgress documents, the 9/11 Commission Report on page 199 sets the record straight, noting that CIA Director George Tenet had the green light from President Clinton to kill Bin Laden.
To promote its 9/11 fantasy just in time for the fifth anniversary of the attacks, ABC and the producers of the docudrama are taking a cue from Mel Gibson and the launch of Passion of the Christ. Just as with the Passion, the true-believer market is being seeded, while skeptics are being kept at bay. Conservative bloggers are receiving pre-release DVDs in advance of this weekend's screening on the mini-series, while progressive bloggers are banned from participating in conference calls regarding the film. (ABC briefly took down the film's blog, only to see it return after two days of withering criticism.) Copies of the film are being sent to 100,000 teachers nationwide as well as to schools in the UK and India, complete with cover letter from Republican 9/11 commission chairman Tom Keane. (Keane's son just happens to be running for Senate in New Jersey against Democratic incumbent Bob Menendez.) In comparison, Sinclair's 2004 election eve Swift Boat faux documentary smearing John Kerry seems like small potatoes.
While ABC is complicit in doing the bidding of the conservative propaganda machine, ABC News has maintained a seeming vow of silence. Instead, ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson focused its venom on the new "Iraq for Sale" documentary from "Outfoxed" producer Robert Greenwald. Without investigating the allegations of contractor fraud and profiteering detailed in the film, ABC's Dan Harris suggested Greenwald's documentary was purely partisan:
Critics of these kinds of documentaries remind viewers not to expect balance from left-leaning documentaries, such as Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and former Vice President Al Gore's global warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
"Finally, the left has figured out their answer to talk radio - and it's documentaries," said Prof. Richard Lichter of George Mason University.
"Iraq for Sale" was produced more like a political campaign than a traditional movie, largely funded by 3,000 small donations made on the Internet.
This weekend, all of America will be watching as ABC becomes a de facto appendage of the Republican Party. Everyone, that is, except ABC News.
I am soooo outraged by this ABC movie coming out!! What can the average person do to prevent this blatant propoganda from being unleashed?? I'm going to contact my local ABC affiliate and suggest that they refuse to air this nonsense! I urge everyone out there to do the same. I don't think we'll have any luck with ABC corporate but the more local affiliates we can put pressure on the better.
"Iraq for Sale" was produced more like a political campaign than a traditional movie, largely funded by 3,000 small donations made on the Internet.
It's sad that they attacked the funding rather than vetting the content of the movie. The commentary didn't refute anything in it, but rather chose to try to smear by association (not that either film mentioned is bad to anyone but a Rightie), to smear small investors, and to drag out one quote without any sense of balance.
I think you took Dan Harris' piece out of context.
Critics of these kinds of documentaries remind viewers not to expect balance from left-leaning documentaries, such as Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and former Vice President Al Gore's global warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
Here he is talking about the critics of documentaries - he isn't expressing his own opinion.
"Finally, the left has figured out their answer to talk radio - and it's documentaries," said Prof. Richard Lichter of George Mason University.
That is true - Talk radio is primarily a conservative medium. There are a lot more left leaning documentaries. There is also more of a presence of the left in the blogosphere.
"Iraq for Sale" was produced more like a political campaign than a traditional movie, largely funded by 3,000 small donations made on the Internet.
I think he's talking about the business model here now about any slant in the content.
I'm no fan of ABC for what seems to be happening with the Path to 9/11, but lets get the criticism accurate
Rick:
The criticism of ABC News is precisely accurate, and very much on point.
The documentaries are dissed on a variety of irrelevant and/or insignificant items, but the little matter of truthful content is never addressed. Rather, Mr. Harris "finds" anonymous "critics" to speak the lines he always wished he had had the opportunity to speak, to those nerdy documentarians. Documentaries do tend to be factual, and since there is no easy way successfully to attack the FACTS (at least without doing real research, maybe even watching the subject documentary), Harris/ABC seek(s) out an additional obscure surrogate to attack the medium.
Indeed, "There are a lot more left leaning documentaries." Reminds me of Colbert's observation regarding "the truth has a liberal bias". Then, YOU show up and want to argue about additional irrelevancies and impertinences. Hmmmm . . .
I wonder if you work at ABC?
This movie was the eye-opener for me, it reminded me of the comment the journalist in Hotel Rwanda had made, people will be like oh that's awful then go back to their dinners and forget it ever happenned. If there is even a chance that these accusations could be true, I would think that the pro-troop nation that we are, would make sure that there is an investigation into this. If not for kicking the republicans out of office, then maybe for making sure that our soldiers who have not come home with bullet wounds, will not come home with infectious pathogens.