ABC is on the defensive, and the network is taking steps that look like backpedaling, but “[tag]The Path to 9/11[/tag]” docudrama remains a political problem.
Under growing pressure from Democrats and aides to former President Bill Clinton, ABC is re-evaluating and in some cases re-editing crucial scenes in its new [tag]mini-series[/tag] “The Path to 9/11” to soften its portrait of the Clinton administration’s pursuit of Osama bin Laden, according to people involved in the project.
Among the changes, [tag]ABC[/tag] is altering one scene in which an actor playing Samuel R. Berger, the former national security adviser, abruptly hangs up on a C.I.A. officer during a critical moment in a military operation, according to Thomas H. Kean, a consultant on the ABC project and co-chairman of the federal Sept. 11 commission.
Mr. Berger has said that the scene is a fiction, and Mr. Kean, in an interview, said that he believed Mr. Berger was correct and that ABC was making appropriate changes.
It remains to be seen just how substantive these changes are, and whether the revisions are sufficient to offer viewers something close to reality. Let’s not forget, an ABC insider told Hugh Hewitt, a far-right blogger, that conservatives need not worry — any changes that are made will be superficial and not alter the point of the fiction. Specifically, Hewitt was told that the changes, referred to as “tweaks,” will be so inconsequential that the “average viewer would not be able to tell the difference between the two versions.” More importantly, the ABC source told Hewitt, “The message of the Clinton Admin failures remains fully intact.”
That, of course, was a couple of days ago, before this controversy became a major political story. It’s possible that ABC may be far more concerned with accuracy now than it was before this story broke in a big way.
For what it’s worth, the controversy shows no signs of slowing down.
* Scholastic’s on-again, off-again connection to this project officially ended late yesterday, when the educational media giant announced that it is dropping the classroom materials it had intended to distribute to classrooms about the [tag]movie[/tag]. Scholastic’s CEO said the company concluded that the materials “did not meet our high standards for dealing with controversial issues.” The company, however, will replace the materials with new lessons stressing critical thinking and media literacy, including an exploration of what a “[tag]docudrama[/tag]” is and the differences between factual reporting and a dramatization.
* Tom Kean Sr., the Republican who chaired the 9/11 commission and is a co-executive producer of the film, told the WaPo, “I know there are some scenes where words are put in characters’ mouths. But the whole thing is true to the spirit of 9/11.” I have no idea what this means. It’s inconsistent with the facts of 9/11, but it’s true to the spirit of 9/11? Someone’s going to have to explain that one to me.
* Senate Democratic leaders, including Sens. Reid, Durbin, Stabenow,
Schumer, and Dorgan, wrote a very hard-hitting letter to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger yesterday.
* The DNC drew more than 100,000 signatures in 24 hours to a petition of complaint that it plans to give to ABC today.
* Clinton’s former Defense Secretary, William Cohen, a Republican, denounced the film’s fictional claims during an interview on CNN yesterday.
* ABC’s news division wants everyone to know that it had absolutely nothing to do with the docudrama.
* Richard Miniter — conservative author of “Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror” — confirmed yesterday that scenes from the movie are based on “Internet myth.”
* Barbara Bodine, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen from 1997-2001 and a visiting scholar at MIT’s Center for International Studies, has an LA Times op-ed today in which she describes the movie as “bunk.”
* Actor Harvey Keitel, the star of the docudrama, acknowledged yesterday that he, too, has concerns about the accuracy of the material, suggesting that some of the scenes “distort reality.”
* And Michael Froomkin explores the possibility of ABC committing libel with the movie. “If I were at ABC or Disney I’d be having a serious talk with my lawyers right about now,” he said.
Stay tuned.