I guess it is.
Following complaints, ABC tweaks its 9/11 mini-series
By Scott Collins
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published September 7, 2006
chicagotribune.com.
HOLLYWOOD -- ABC's upcoming five-hour docudrama "The Path to 9/11" is becoming a political cause celebre.
In recent days the network has made changes to the mini-series, set to air Sunday and Monday, after leading political figures, many of them Democrats, complained about bias and alleged inaccuracies. A left-wing organization has launched a letter-writing campaign urging the network to "correct" or dump the mini-series, while conservative blogs have mounted a vigorous defense.
"The Path to 9/11" dramatizes what it deems intelligence and operational failures of the Clinton and Bush administrations, relying heavily on public records. Thomas Kean, chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, served as a consultant.
After a screening of the first episode in Washington last week, some audience members attacked the film's depiction of the Clinton administration's pursuit of Osama bin Laden. Among those unhappy was Richard Ben-Veniste, an attorney and 9/11 panel member. Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar, has criticized the movie for suggesting the Clinton administration was in a position to capture bin Laden in 1998 but canceled the mission at the last minute.
The Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal advocacy group, said Wednesday it had collected 25,000 letters asking ABC to either correct or cancel the mini-series.
The mini-series "presents an agenda that blames the Clinton administration for the 9/11 attacks while ignoring numerous errors and failures of the Bush administration," the center said.
ABC toned down a scene that involved Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, declining to give the order to kill bin Laden, according to a person involved with the film who declined to be identified. "That sequence has been the focus of attention," the source said.
The network also decided that the credits would say the film is based "in part" on the 9/11 panel report, rather than "based on" the report, as the producers originally intended. |
