{"id":8359,"date":"2006-09-01T13:28:03","date_gmt":"2006-09-01T17:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8359.html"},"modified":"2006-09-01T13:28:03","modified_gmt":"2006-09-01T17:28:03","slug":"abc-docudrama-on-911-blasts-clinton-praises-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/abc-docudrama-on-911-blasts-clinton-praises-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC ‘docudrama’ on 9\/11 blasts Clinton, praises Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the fifth anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks coming up, different TV networks will mark the occasion in different ways. CNN is scheduled to air a new documentary, “CNN Presents: In the Footsteps of bin Laden,” reported by Christiane Amanpour and partially based on CNN terrorism expert Peter Bergen’s book, “The Osama bin Laden I Know.” CBS will show viewers (much to Don Wildmon’s dismay<\/a>) a documentary that includes the only known footage from inside the Twin Towers that morning, and features real-life dialog from heroic firefighters who were on the scene.<\/p>\n

[tag]ABC[\/tag], meanwhile, has decided to devote six hours of primetime programming to Rush Limbaugh’s new favorite “[tag]docudrama[\/tag]<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

On September 10 and 11, ABC will air a “docudrama” called “The [tag]Path to 9\/11[\/tag].” It was written by Cyrus Nowrasteh, who describes himself as “more of a libertarian than a strict conservative,” and is giving interviews to hard-right sites like FrontPageMag to promote the film.<\/p>\n

What will it say about President Clinton? Here’s Rush [tag]Limbaugh[\/tag] with a preview:<\/p>\n

“A friend of mine [Cyrus Nowrasteh] out in California has produced and filmed \u2014 I think it’s a two-part mini-series on 9\/11 that ABC is going to run in prime-time over two nights, close to or on 9\/11. It’s sort of surprising that ABC’s picked it up, to me. I’ve had a lot of people tell me about it, my friends told me about it…And from what I have been told, the film really zeros in on the shortcomings of the Clinton administration in doing anything about militant Islamofascism or terrorism during its administration.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When a drama is so slanted that Limbaugh is “surprised” it’s going to be on primetime, you know it’s going to be pretty overwhelming. Worse, ABC is billing the docudrama as being “based on<\/a> The 9\/11 Commission Report.”<\/p>\n

Salon has a review<\/a> of the program and it sounds like they strayed from the report a little. OK, more than a little.
\n<\/p>\n

More disturbing, though, is the way the filmmakers seem determined to link the Clinton administration’s missteps to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Instead of offering us some indication of President Clinton’s earnest efforts to stop Osama bin Laden, we’re repeatedly treated to his most uneasy moments in the hot seat over Lewinsky, painting the president as a buffoon more interested in blow jobs than terrorists.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice gets that fated memo about planes flying into buildings, and makes it very clear to anyone who’ll listen just how concerned President Bush is about these terrorist threats<\/i> — despite the fact that we’re given little concrete evidence of the president’s concern or interest in taking action. Maybe my memory fails me, but the only person I remember talking about Osama bin Laden back in 1998 was President Clinton, while the current anti-terrorist stalwarts worked the country into a frenzy over what? Blow jobs. In the end, “The Path to 9\/11” feels like an excruciatingly long, winding and deceptive path, indeed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As TP noted, the director of the movie, David Cunningham, is already backtracking about its accuracy, saying “this is not a [tag]documentary[\/tag]<\/a>.” I can only hope ABC reminds viewers of this fact — repeatedly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the fifth anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks coming up, different TV networks will mark the occasion in different ways. CNN is scheduled to air a new documentary, “CNN Presents: In the Footsteps of bin Laden,” reported by Christiane Amanpour and partially based on CNN terrorism expert Peter Bergen’s book, “The Osama bin Laden I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}