Path To Rewriting History

by digby

How surprising to learn that the new ABC “event movie” scheduled for next week-end called “The Path To 9/11,” touted as being “based on the 9/11 Commission Report,” has been selectively screened only by rightwing columnists and bloggers. Why on earth would ABC do that?

When challenged to explain why the right-wing blogosphere is abuzz with praise for the film, director David Cunningham responded that “we are also being accused of being a left wing movie that bashes Bush” — a claim for which there is absolutely no evidence. I searched Technorati for mentions of the film and found 260 references, mostly from conservative websites, every single one of which had nothing but praise for the film. And although I found numerous examples of conservative pundits and bloggers who reported seeing pre-broadcast screenings, no leftist pundits or bloggers had been given a chance to see it (unless you count Salon.com’s roundup of several 9/11-themed movies).

As further evidence of the filmmakers’ fundamental dishonesty, “Path to 9/11” had its own blog until recently, where screenwriter Nowrasteh attempted to explain away the right-wing blogobuzz about the film by saying, “We can’t control who writes what.” It’s clear, however, that they did carefully control who could see the film prior to broadcast. And in response to criticisms and questions posted in the comments section of their own blog, they airbrushed it out of existence Sunday afternoon, which is why my links above to the apologetics by Cunningham and Nowrasteh no longer work, although the Google cache to the original blog still exists.

Apparently, the rightwing bloggers all got preview copies days ago. Hugh Hewitt wrote:

I, and I am sure many others, have been sent the entire six hour program to preview and review, which I will be doing over the weekend. Edits post-distribution of the review DVDs would invite scrutiny of the very portions sent down the black hole, underscoring the episodes the censors hoped to hide.

When this was revealed, the lefty bloggers who asked ABC for copies so that they might see it too, were told that they would have to wait until this week. Obviously, none of us will be able to screen it until Wednesday at the earliest and probably not even then. I suspect that it may have been sent out to the rightwing blogs for the specific purpose that was referenced by Hewitt above, and seconded by Instapundit: by ensuring that it was in their hands in its original form, any edits of incorrect information would be preserved and protested vehemently.

And then there’s this wierd question of the “disappeared” blog. Check out the succession of “clarifications” which, before the blog was completely removed, tried to claim that the movie was unbaised, concluding with this from the director:

The redundant statement about Clinton and the emphasis to protect his legacy instead of trying to learn from the failures of BOTH administrations smells of “agenda”. You may feel we “bash” Clinton and/or you may feel we “bash” Bush but the facts are that the eight years from the first WTC bombing to the day of 9/11 involved two administrations with plenty of culpability all around. Something needs to explain how that happened.

Watch the movie! Then let’s talk. If you haven’t seen the movie with your very own eyes – don’t castigate the movie out of ignorance.

-David Cunningham

Smells of agenda, indeed. Obviously,since only some people have had a chance to watch the movie and guage its accuracy, it’s difficult to know. But from what I can tell, there has not been anyone who’s said that the movie “bashes” Bush. In fact, those who’ve seen the whole thing, say things like this:

The Clinton administration will likely go ballistic over this film. (Perhaps why ABC isn’t pushing it at as much as they should be??) It does not have a “partisan” feel to it by any means. The Bush administation comes in for some criticism (Condi Rice in particular comes off rather poorly), but that is nothing comapred to the depiction of Sandy Berger and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. I doubt that they will be able to show their faces in public after this (and also helps to explain why Berger was so eager to try to illegally remove classified documents from the archives before his Senate testimony on the 9/11 events). If Bill Clinton’s current purpose in life is solidify a positive “legacy” for his time in office, this film has the potential to be his biggest hurdle to overcome yet.

Well, I’ll certainly look forward to seeing this fabulously unbiased film. If non-partisan bloggers on Patterico say it tells the real story, who am I to be skeptical?

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