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September 7, 2006

ABC is the new FOX News (updated)

Bill Clinton's not to happy about the upcoming fake 9/11 movie on ABC:

Clinton pointedly refuted several fictionalized scenes that he claims insinuate he was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to care about bin Laden and that a top adviser pulled the plug on CIA operatives who were just moments away from bagging the terror master, according to a letter to ABC boss Bob Iger obtained by The Post.

The former president also disputed the portrayal of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as having tipped off Pakistani officials that a strike was coming, giving bin Laden a chance to flee.

"The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate and ABC has the duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely," the four-page letter said.

The movie is set to air on Sunday and Monday nights. Monday is the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Based on the 9/11 commission's report, the miniseries is also being provided to high schools as a teaching aid - although ABC admits key scenes are dramatizations. [full story]

In addition to the sin of general fakery, the truly eff'd up thing is that they're going to distribute this crap to high schools as a "teaching aid," thereby insuring another generation of citizens is properly misinformed.

I don't watch FOX News and I can easily chuck ABC. The only show I ever watched on there with any regularity was Lost, and I decided those guys were completely making shit up as they go along after the finale to last season.

(Maybe the headline for this post should be: FAKE ABC 9/11 MINISERIES IS THE NEW LOST?)

UPDATE: Here is a link to a discussion of the fake teaching aids associated with this fake movie.

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On a related note, I wasted a few precious minutes of my life watching one of Bush's terror speeches this morning. I think he said the words "safe" and "safer" about 50 times. As Glenn Greenwald writes, this neocon obsession with safety is a supreme irony:

So much of the neoconservative warrior cries are built on an ethos of deep fear, of exactly the desperate desire to be protected and saved which Steyn and company claim is the hallmark of the girlish, soul-less West. As they strike the warrior pose, they are desperately willing, even eager, to fundamentally change the character and principles of our republic and to sacrifice the core liberties which define it because they are scared and want, more than anything else, to be protected.

Do you want to hear what a person sounds like when they really are -- to use Steyn's words -- "weak, that there's nothing -- no core, no bedrock -- nothing it's not willing to trade"? Here is Bush loyalist Sen. John Cornyn, explaining why we should allow the President to break the law and eavesdrop on our conversations without any oversight: "None of your civil liberties matter much after you're dead." And here is Pat Roberts, showing how willing he is to trade all American values in the hope of being protected from the things he fears: "I am a strong supporter of the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and civil liberties. But you have no civil liberties if you are dead." That "rationale" means we do anything -- give up all freedoms, relinquish all values -- because desperately trying to stay alive is the only thing that matters. [full post]

It isn't safe and nothing these people are doing is making us safer.

Posted by ebogjonson in politricknal sciences, screened, on September 7, 2006 8:45 AM