Variety: "Pols Pound 'Path'" (to 9/11)

[villager]

Pols pound 'Path'
Under fire, ABC mulls yanking mini

By WILLIAM TRIPLETT



"The Path to 9/11" is looking a lot like "The Reagans, Part II."

Bill Clinton loyalists are demanding wholesale changes to the upcoming miniseries -- and while ABC is making some snips, the alterations, insiders say, may not please the Dems.

But a bombshell decision may happen anyway: Sources close to the project say the network, which has been in a media maelstrom over the pic, is mulling the idea of yanking the mini altogether.
As for specific criticisms -- and changes -- the original mini contained a scene in which then-National Security Adviser Sandy Berger declines to give the CIA authority to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, even when CIA operatives know where the al-Qaeda leader is.

"This account has been expressly contradicted by Richard Clarke, a high-ranking counterterrorism official in both the Clinton and Bush administrations," certain lawmakers wrote in a letter to Disney topper Bob Iger.

While ABC declined to comment on specific changes, it's believed that the Berger scene was among those being reworked. Controversy -- fueled by screaming headlines on the Drudge Report and treated as a "developing story" by CNN -- threatened to obscure the Alphabet's attempt to offer what execs there firmly believe is a socially important piece of TV filmmaking in the tradition of "The Day After" and "An Early Frost."

But much in the same way right-wing groups mobilized to attack CBS' "The Reagans" a few years ago, Democratic partisans were doing everything they could to discredit ABC's "The Path to 9/11."

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http://www.variety.com/VR1117949675.html

[Xipe Totec]

1. Discredit?

Democratic partisans were doing everything they could to discredit ABC's "The Path to 9/11."

How does one discredit what has no credibility?

[AndyA]

2. Good point - but how do you reason with someone who lacks that ability?

The facts are out there for anyone to see for themselves, but lazy complacent Americans won't bother to check for themselves. They'll just believe what they're told by the media. The media wouldn't lie, would it?

:sarcasm:

[Imagevision]

3. This fictional film could easily come back badly for the GOP

ABC makes 9-11 available to Limbaugh and refuses to allow former President Clinton the opportunity to view it?? Stating that no Democrat has scene the final version of Path To 9-11.

[warrens]

4. I just emailed the author

"Clinton loyalists" is entirely deceptive as to the reaction, and he never even mentioned that ABC withheld screeners from anyone whose ox was getting gored, so to speak, while dumping hundreds on the wingnut blogosphere.

[villager]

5. good! Sometimes "liberal" Variety is quite naive about these things...

n/t