By MARC McDONALD
The ruckus over Disney/ABC's upcoming 9/11 "docudrama," brings to mind an earlier controversy over a TV series that raised a firestorm of controversy. In 2003, right-wing protests led Viacom to cancel its showing of "The Reagans" on CBS. Instead, the series ran on Showtime on pay-cable (which greatly reduced its audience potential).
The controversies over the two TV series demonstrates how that GOP wields vastly more influence than Democrats over how history is presented in TV dramas these days. After a threatened boycott, the Republicans were able to successfully prevent "The Reagans" from being broadcast on CBS, because they took issue with the program's portrayal of the Reagan family.
However, the Democrats have no such power. Disney/ABC has no intention of canceling "The Path to 9/11," (which is set to air on Sunday and Monday). This, despite the fact that the series is riddled with errors and is clearly a blatantly partisan hatchet job on Bill Clinton and the Democrats that is being aired only eight weeks before the midterm elections.
As Media Matters has pointed out that the miniseries "twists and invents facts and storylines to create a false picture of the Clinton administration's role in failing to prevent the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, while largely ignoring Bush administration failures."
Interestingly enough, Disney/ABC has refused to provide Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger advance copies of the "docudrama," while GOP bloggers have been sent copies.
Clinton's office has strongly denounced the program, calling ABC/Disney "despicable" for airing a program that is "fiction" and "in direct contradiction of the 9-11 commission report and the facts."
If you'd like to add your voice to those requesting that ABC cancel this slanted, inaccurate, partisan hatchet job on Clinton, go here.
News and opinion with a progressive viewpoint.
It'd be nice if ABC would cancel this program. But it's hard to imagine that happening, if nothing else but for the reason that they spent $40 million on it.
ReplyDeleteWell, if it's shown with all those outright fabrications and falsehoods of putting LIES into real characters mouths...then I hope those folks SUE that Little Vermin's Mouse-Butt right off!
ReplyDeleteOh - and I did put up a postie on yet another reason these GOPhuckers want a Fictionalized Pre-9/11 supposed *failure* to capture Osama in our sights - an event that never happened!
;-)
I would suspect that this will be the start of a new trend of right-wing historical drama re-writes that basically glorify the GOP and demonize the Dems. The NeoCons simply have vastly more finance and clout these days than the Dems and they have the muscle to push these projects through, regardless of how much opposition the Democrats can muster.
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ReplyDeleteI saw "The Reagans" mini-series and quite frankly I can't understand why it was opposed so strongly by the Republicans. It was not even remotely a hatchet job on the Reagans and actually presented them in a mostly favorable light.
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