Mickey’s CYA

by digby

So Disney/ABC is whining that it’s unfair to criticize the movie when nobody’s seen the final version. Yet they sent out hundreds of DVD’s to Republicans all over the country to review — and pointedly didn’t send any to Democtrats, even the former president and secretary of State whose reputations were being assassinated in the film.

There’s a reason for that. I will simply refer you to what our friend Hugh Hewitt wrote last week-end:

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.

Disney/ABC got the propaganda into the hands of the people who needed it — the right wing. No matter what happens now, their job is done.

Update: Hewitt makes it more explicit today:

“The Path to 9/11” is a faithful and compelling recreation within the limits of the craft of the fatal nonchalance of the ’90s, combined with a salute to the hard-working men and women who struggled against the bureaucratic insanities of that era, represented chiefly in the person of FBI Agent John O’Neill, played by Harvey Keitel, and a supporting cast of brave and never-discouraged lower level Bureau and CIA operatives who understood the risks. In trying to deep-six the series, the Clinton forces are trying to silence their story.

The Clinton operatives are also bringing a useful attention to the program and especially any last minute edits ABC might make. The network risks outrage from center and right if it airbrushes the narrative, and even from those in Hollywood who stand by the idea that a good faith piece of work should be unmolested by the PC police.

You can bet that ABC is hearing from their side too. I can hear the snarling and growling all the way to Santa Monica.

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