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The folks at Think Progress and Eschaton are reporting that ABC is not only refusing to provide advance copies of "The Path to 9/11" mini-series to progressive bloggers like yours truly, but to--jaw drop--President Clinton , Sandy Berger and Madeleine Albright.
Oh, they can get it to Rush Limbaugh, and a host of right-wing blogs two weeks before air date, but the Mickey Mouse network wants us to believe that they can't make copies available for the former leader of the free world?
Charles Gibson and the rest of ABC News! Where are you in all of this? What do you make of what ABC Entertainment is doing to your rep?
Charlie, ABC is airing a fictionalized account of 9/11, that directly contradicts the 9/11 Commission Report on which it claims to be based. ABC politicized this project in all manner of ways, including sending preview copies to right-wing partisans, while exluding left-wing partisans. Your network claims this is a non-partisan public service, yet it is written and directed by avowed conservatives and is being fronted by only the Republican co-chair of the 9/11 Commission.
What part of this is fair or professional?
Should the former President and Secretary of State of this nation be denied a request by a television network that is supposed to serve the American people, and that uses our public airwaves? Look at what Madeleine Albright has to say:
While I have requested a copy of the broadcast, I have yet to receive one. I have been informed by some who had been given the right to view the broadcast that the drama depicts scenes that never happened, events that never took place, decisions that were never made and conversations that never occurred; it asserts as fact things that are not fact.
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asswipes
Jennifer!
BILL!
No surprise…ABC is trying to be the Faux News of Broadcast TV.
Boston Globe ran a softball report on the movie today with no mention of the controversy.
Clinton, Berger, Albright and Ben-Veniste ought to have their lawyers stop this before it airs. What can we do?
klyde—
I just called my son’s high school about this. Wasn’t able to reach anyone right now, lunch hour I guess. Are they going to show it? If so, are they going to provide a forum for people to correct inaccuracies?
Remember, anyone who is thinking that the press needs to be asking these questions can respectfully ask that they do hitting the”spotlight” link at the end of each post, and selecting either national or your own local media.
I think this satisfactorily falls under the category of “outrageous.” Smear a guy — the former President of the United States — and then refuse to let him have access to it so he can’t defend himself.
But crazy-assed wingnuts? No problem.
Oh, if Peter Jennings could see this– he’d be fighting mad– Charles Gibson is a willing wimp.
OT– CNN reporting that ABC says that bushco is giving Geneva Convention protections to CIA detainees.
too little, too late.
Jane Hamsher @
6
Just did it. Felt good.
We should make sure ABC is thought of as the Faux News of broadcast TV with its declining market share. No one who wants truth from their news should watch any ABC news programs again. If possible, set your TIVO for programs that run opposite ABC News programming (apparently the ratings services can and do count TIVO recordings) to hurt their market share.
Watching it right now !! Really.
wish I could get it to you.
Christy, Mary4, anylawyer
‘malice’, no? Anybody setting up a defense fund? Where can I donate?
I listed at the end of the last thread but please folks…
call george mitchell — he is on the disney board. His # is 212-335-4500 and his assistant is Ann Unger - 212-335-4601
Katie Couric might also be interested in this story, to take on the competition at ABC and to build up the “serious news” chops for the CBS Evening News.
here is the link to the disney board –
http://corporate.disney.go.com.....ctors.html
Has anyone else noticed that while the Path to 9/11 site is back up and ostensibly accepting comments (you can type ‘em and enter ‘em), those comments are not actually posting?
angie @ 7
Yeah, that’ll make me forget Gonzalez’s memos. In a pig’s eye!
Time to start calling companies that advertize during this mini-series and let them know their products are considered “non-existent” in your household. Anyone have a listing??
Hubris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Arrogance!!!!!!!!!!!!
and f–k–g scary.
I have been having a great time with spotlighting!
If the spotlight people happen to read this — I am hoping that they will soon include info on local npr affiliate stations. For example, I would like to spotlight this story to Brian Lehrer (I am emailing him anyway) because this is such a huge story for NYers.
Its good to harass ABC, but even better to spur other media outlets to cover the story critically.
helen @
10
why can’t you? Rip a copy, or in the interest of getting it to people who really need to see it, send what you’ve got. I bet Jennifer Nix and everyone at FDL would swoon and be eternally in your debt.
Jane Hamsher @
6
Thanks Jane.
I was unaware until yesterday, my fault, how easy Spotlight makes it to find local media.
Took me two minutes to Spotlight my ABC affiliate. FWIW, here’s the note I sent.
They’re just a huge fucking corporation, and they will do what they think is in their best interests. If they think that airing outright lies is that, they’ll do it. Just as another corporation in a different line of work would dump toxins in the drinking water if it boosted their bottom line for the next quarter. This is what businesses do.
I can tell you what would absolutely get the full and undivided attention of ABC-Disney corporate to this matter:
A giant pile of Disney DVDs delivered and piled up in the headquarters parking lot, with notes attached from the former owners, indicating that their families will no longer purchase any Disney entertainment whatsoever at any time, including from prominent sub-brands like Pixar. Permanent irrevocable boycott.
That would effectuate rapid change (as in the instant firing of Iger and anyone below him in the corporate hierarchy who had anything to do with the “Path” greenlighting).
Will it ever happen? No, it won’t, not a chance of it, because American progressives are mainly spineless consumerist suburbanites at heart, ones who can’t bear the thought that the kids might wail at not being able to see the latest Mouse dreck over and over.
wrong side of the Atlantic. By the time UPS or anybody got it to you, it’d have been aired.
drinksforall @
17
According to Variety, yesterday, they can’t find any sponsors. It will be shown “without commercial interruption.”
I saw Charlie Gibson on Charlie Rose a couple of weeks ago. He’s not going to do anything to rock his boat. But we need to spotlight it nevertheless, far and wide. Can’t seem to find the local SF ABC affiliate contact.
Unbelievable. As low-class as this operation is becoming, I am starting to think Dan Gerstein is advising these chuckleheads.
If nothing else, refusing the requests of a former president and a former Secretary of State is just rude and disrespectful. Wonder if they would refuse the same request by Bubba’s new best friend, Bush 41? Or how about the effect of this headline: “Clinton and Albright attend Preview of 9/11 Film at Home of George H.W. Bush.” Wouldn’t that be a hoot?
Maybe someone should ask for “equal time” from the network, for rebuttal.
Hello, America - this is the mindset of the people who have the power and want to hold onto it.
As an accompaniment to Teddy’s “Had Enough,” I would like to add:
=====================================
Mad as Hell and Not Going To Take it Anymore!!
=====================================
OT - raw story headline - Rove email in leak case withheld for a year,
office printout shows… Developing….
timewarp @
19
:-)
To find you local NPR stations do the following:
1) Uncheck “Print”
2) Check “Radio”
3) Check “Regional”
4) Enter a two-letter state code
5) press “Update”
6) select targets
7) press “Next”
And continue as normal.
If you want to see even more contacts you can all click “more>>” to see expanded options and then check “All”.
Absolutely!
Funny that ABC got the scoop on bushco’s “change of heart” toward all of these detainees…
tinfoil working nicely.
spotlighting is great.
Wonder if we can expand it to movie/tv critics?
I’ve been spotlighting this to the tribune but it only goes down to tempo editor when i would like to send it to the tribune tv writer. he is likely to review the damn show, would be nice to spot light these stories to tv critics at all the major papers, wires, etc.
drinksforall @ 17
Part of the insidious nature of this travesty is that there are no advertisers. They are running it without commercial support.
Anyone know how many hours this series is? How many minutes of paid revenue this show will forego?
Peterr @ 13
Peterr has a good point. CBS could pump her fluff and get payback on the Dan Rather fiasco at the same time. Reiterating, we need to go around ABC and Disney, rather than through or against them. ABC and Disney have been gaming their response to this for weeks. We need to surround them, not go up against their prepared positions.
Where’s George Patton when you really need him?
Maybe Bill can borrow Poppy and Bar’s copy. (Well, actually I’d bet they don’t have one either.)
You know, even if parents (or teachers) explain the dishonesty of this production, the kids who have this knowledge are left with the sad understanding that their government is a sham. This is the best case scenario. At least during Nixon’s time we got some justice on the heels of the revelations and were able to patch back together some faith in our democracy because of the Watergate hearings.
Now? What do the kids have? Nothing but corruption with no end in sight. The lucky ones have parents who will tell them the truth. The others will be fully propagandized for who knows how long?
The fact that this film is being broadcast with no commercials is such an unusual occurrence it has been annointed with gravitas and import right out of the starting gate, even if it is called a “docudrama”. There’s no getting around the fact that presentation speaks volumes.
Great post Jennifer, thanks.
I mentioned this last thread, Clinton is in a terrible postion here. Even for him to deny the obvious and calculated lies, gives Rove/Disney/ABC a standing they do not deserve.
This is an opportuntity for all of us to support the big Dawg, so there’s no need for him to speak. Every elected Democrate, national, state, and local, should denounce this, so Bill doesn’t have to say a word.
If they don’t, it hurts Bill’s ability to campaign with them in the Fall.
Where is Steve Jobs on this?
I am willing to mail my ipod (mashed with a hammer)
back to Apple.
I haven’t had anything to do with Disney
for years so I don’t have anything to send back to them. Didn’t let my kids participate either.
What’s up with #22?
ABC advertisers — great strategy. Why not start targeting their “normal” or heavy regular advertisers?
Anyone know who they are or have a list or watch a lot of ABC?
I widely checked the Internets — bittorrents and all that — “The Path to 9/11″ isnt available yet …
6 hours of it, meta.
I’ve contacted several people at ABC and have sent an e-mail to George Mitchell, Chairman of the Board at Disney. So far I’ve only gotten canned “we got your message,but can’t read it” types of canned responses.
I believe the real way to make an impact is to contact the sponsors. I understand that ABC is running the “docuspin” without sponsors, but they do have regular corporate sponsors. I found that several of these corporations sponsor several ABC primetime Programs. List of sponsors by program via (very ironically):
Parents TV.org
Just a short list of sponsors of several programs: Cingular, Ford, Home Depot, Dominos…
How great is FireDogLake? Even Somerby, toughest critic in blogosphere, thinks you are doing great.
marquer, watch your mouth.
We helped Ned kick Joe’s ass.
Quit running us down and use all that anger to Spotlight your local media on this.
OT, if you had read some of the prior posts, you’d know that Disney/ABC stands to LOSE $40,000,000 on this. They can’t find any advertisers. We’re focussed on Disney/ABC management and we need the help of Disney/ABC shareholders to pressure them.
*ilson46201 @ 36
I have been looking too with no luck.
Interesting back to back timing of the release of the Corn/Issakoff book and ABC’s hitpiece. Up at Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/news/2....._0906.html they have the newest revelations. The release of this book which is bound to cause great political harm is now being offset by a movie treat for America.
helen @
10
why can’t you? Rip a copy, or in the interest of getting it to people who really need to see it, send what you’ve got. I bet Jennifer Nix and everyone at FDL would swoon and be eternally in your debt.John Casper @ 33
I beg to differ on this one. One of the reasons I feel the democratic party has fallen out of favor in past years is because too many times someone was afraid to call bullshit on something the other side put out. the fact is, it’s already out there. To stay silent is ALSO to give credence to whatever argument they put forth. It’s time to speak up. And loudly.
Mary McCurnin @
34
Don’t want to belabor what may be common knowledge, but Steve Jobs is on the Disney board, and is possibly the bigges single shareholder of Disney Corp., having sold Pixar to Disney for $7 billion. I should add he was also a major (if not majority) shareholder in Pixar. So Steve is as good a pressure point as you can get, better than Mitchell who is chairman.
meta @
31
According to Editor and Publisher, it’s 4.5 hours.
helen @ 23
*ilson46201.. maybe if you offered to pay for the overnighting costs, Helen will send it to you.
orangejumpsuit @ 44
Holy freakin’ crap.
An alternative way to remember and mourn the loss of life on 9/11 is offered by “Women In Black, Baltimore”:
a “Peace Path” has been organized for Baltimore, Maryland from 4 to 6 PM that evening.
Women In Black, Baltimore is part of the international organization ” …to advocate for peace, justice, and an end to violence worldwide.”
www.peacepath911.com
It’s not a march, but a gathering to line Charles St. (the main north-south road in Baltimore) from the Harbor to the city’s beltway.
I hope many Philadelphia and DC readers will find the time to attend.
See Ya,
From the DisneyABCTV website: advertisers include AT&T, Cingular, Ford, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever’s Suave, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures, among others.
Any chance ABC Affiliate KGO in the Bay Area could be added to Spotlight?
Thanks!
Remember the propagandists and punish them. Calling the production a docudrama gives legal cover, but it does not change the immorality. Remember those who lie and turn your back. Remember those who distort the truth of 9/11 dishonor the victims. When this administration gasps it’s last…..remember the corrupt media outlets and make them pay for their dishonor. Disney gives fantasy a bad name. There is no whimsy, no beauty or higher truth conveyed in this corrupt presentation. Remember, it is an opportunistic campaign ploy set upon the backs of victims of 9/11, meant to deceive the American public. Remember this abomination, punish them. Shun them - turn your back - shut them down. They think it will blow over, you will forget……never forget………they are trying to steal your history and nation. They are offering the proverbial poison apple, don’t bite!
mike @
15
Yeah we noticed.
Kind of like the Republican-sponsored Diebold voting machines. You can vote for whoever you want, but your vote isn’t tallied.
For those who want to take more action, I’ve put up a list of ABC advertisers with their contact info on my blog.
Cheers
Tom Kean is, was, and always will be a whore.
Furthermore, that 9/11 commission report is a whitewash.
OT, can anyone load joe2006.com? it was up all morning, now it seems to have gone down.
Late last night whilst searching for Air America, up popped one of the shouters on RW radio - John Ziegler (?).
He was mad as hell and yelling his head off that ABC had caved in to a request from President Clinton who had “forced” ABC to edit, to some degree, their docudrama in the Sandy Berger scene prior to 9/11.
He continued yelling that Republicans would never agree to carry out this sort of censorship (he’d obviously “forgotten” the CBS Reagan docudrama!) Then ranting that “this is censorship by the Democrats and this man Sandy Berger was caught stealing documents from the National Archives”.
anjinsan @ 55
TRex and Kobe were playing tug-of-war and broke it again. Notify the authorities!
grandmatoo @
38
THANK you! Wonderful resource! I’m thinking about a “form” letter, saying what I think about ABC and encouraging them to pull any advertising on that Network…since we’re all going to boycott it anyway :)
Don’t forget to send a quick note to the protectors of the public airwaves
http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html
If they have time to investigate every nipple slip they can investigate this…
Mark Steckel, FWIW.
I apologize if this has been brought up before.
On the FOCUS page, sometimes, after I add my comment, I see the PREVIEW button at the bottom of my screen and hit it. The problem is, twice, I have forgotten to go below the PREVIEW button and put in my contact information.
When I hit the back button, my comment is gone.
Thank you so much. This is such a great tool.
John Casper @ 24
If there are no sponsors for this piece, why not contact major sponsors for ABC’s OTHER shows? [how about the news?] Ask them to cancel their advertising with ABC if this thing is broadcast. Tell them that if they don’t, we will boycott their products.
Benjamin Lybrand @ 53
Thanks very much
meta, 47
Here’s more:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/n.....sney_x.htm
(1/24/2006)
While Mark is getting ABC-owned KGO-TV 7 into spotlight:
KGO-TV 7 in San Francisco has an annoying “fill out the form” on their website to contact them, and you have to use a pull-down menu to get it to the correct person. But I hope this helps while Mark is working on adding it to the Spotlight feature:
GO HERE to contact ABC/San Francisco
KGO
900 Front St
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 478-3810
mahaleela @
50
ABC vs the Big Dog. This should be fun to watch.
mahaleela @ 57
it looks fine to me - it’s just such a hoot. The latest post - all four lines of it - is really funny - and the comments even funnier.
Clearly, these people do NOT understand the toobz, or the concept of blogging. Really, it’s just pitiful.
Hit the regular, general advertisers anyway. Tell them there will be fallout from this ABC peice even if they don’t advertise on it.
anjinsan @
46
I don’t know where exactly Helen is, but FedEx says it’d cost 50-75 pounds (let’s call it $100) to overnight it from London to California. I’ll volunteer to pay half of the freight. Anyone else game?
Birdman @ 59
Nice catch, thanks.
orangejumpsuit, thanks for reminding me about all these details.
ABC/Disney have bullet-proofed themselves. No advertisers, in-house distribution channels for their video and brainwashing school materials. Next, we’ll see the live action dolls being given out wiith the quarter-pounder with cheese.
Yeah, whoever went ahead and thought that all these media mergers and acquisitions were such a great idea paved the way to the grand monopoly.
Anne @ 65
Maybe I’ve been banned. Someone got me into the comments anyway. I still get 404 Not Found whenever I refresh Joe2006. And you’re right. They’re getting killed over there. I’ve been participating in comments for almost two hours now. The General even stopped by to dispense some of his wisdom.
wow, they took this right from Hitler’s playbook prepping for the invasion of Poland in, cough cough, self defense.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2....._0906.html
As part of an aggressive prewar covert action program–codenamed Anabasis (after an ancient text about a botched invasion of Babylon)–the CIA was authorized by the White House in the winter of 2002 to blow up targets in Iraq and engage in “direct action” (an agency euphemism for assassination) to weaken Saddam’s regime and to prepare for his ouster by the U.S. military. For Anabasis, the agency smuggled Iraqi exiles to a top-secret site in the Nevada desert and trained them in sabotage and explosives. The Iraqi force, known as the Scorpions, was being trained to seize an isolated Iraqi military post-in order to create a provocation that could trigger a war with Iraq.
chimpy’s on teevee. opens with 9/11 - “we watched the twin towers collapse before our eyes”
Jacqrat @ 64
Many thanks to you and Mark for your efforts. I’ve been Googling to try and find email contact links for a way in. Their website IS tedious and (so far) I’ve only found news anchors listed there, no management or editors.
meta @ 31
Maybe we could contact the advertisers on the shows immediately preceding and following the program.
Bobby St. Chomsky @ 53
Has the full 9/11 commission report ever seen the light of day? I remember parts of it were held back as a “courtesy” to the Bush campaign so as not to affect the election. I won’t even bother bitching about the sheer immorality of that decision.
But I’m wondering, has the full, un-redacted report ever been released, distributed and disseminated for the public? And if not, these people have the nerve to use the “911 commission report” as a source of this tv show?
In a surprising turnaround today, a major star at Disney has come out against ABC’s controversial 911 “documentary”. The star whom we will refer to as MM asked that his name not be used. “They own me,” he said reflecting the fear that so many at Disney have expressed if they are seen to break step with management. From the interview,
Great work JNix et. al. to keep hammering away at this absurd propaganda.
one thing: I know some folks are are mad and brainstorming some protests, but smashing your ipod and piling up your disney dvds isn’t going to do anything. Ya already bought ‘em. Apple, Disney, etc. could give a hoot about you now. JUST DON’T BUY ANY MORE.
Mark Re: Spotlight
I tried to edit my Spotlight message to delete two people I had not meant to send it to. Spotlight advised me to use the Back button on my Web browser to make any changes. When I did that, I lost my message.
Can that instruction on Spotlight be changed?
Everybody thinks *ilson is a big money bags now - since he’s been shelling out the big bucks for the URLs… :)
John Casper @ 59
Which browser/OS are you using? Also, planning to add an “edit” button so the back arrow btn is not required.
yw :-)
OT, but a leetle taste of the elevated discourse by Lieberman supporters at www.joe2006.com, courtesy of the comments section of the Cup o’ Joementum blog:
Courtesy of:
GoGoJoe | Homepage | 09.06.06 - 1:28 pm | #
With “friends” like these, who needs enemies?
I would be interested in knowing two things: first, does ABC plan to use this program as “children’s educational programming” to qualify for its FCC requirement to renew its broadcast license? The Scholastic tie-in seems to imply that it does.
Second, would ABC turn down Howard Dean as the head of the Democratic Central Committee to preview the program to determine whether the program might qualify as “generic campaign activity” under Federal Election Commission rules as a communication that promotes or opposes a political party? Whether the program libels anybody is a separate matter. I’m concerned about how citizens can oppose propaganda or if our laws have any check on a ruling political party’s use of it by obtaining a possible in-kind contribution from a major broadcasting corporation.
OMG Lieberman’s site is fucking hilarious!
Benjamin at #53: Thanks for the link and for the Sponsor Contact Form that you posted there! I’ll be e-mailing some of them.
For all that hard work, I think you should be spared the further torture of watching more ABC primetime–As I mentioned in #39, I googled and found that Parenttv.org has a page listing TV programs and their sponsors:
TV Program Lists And Sponsors
I did a quick check there and found Ford, Dominos, Cingular, Kohl’s were listed for several shows.
twolf1 live-blogging Fartacus’ speechifying… Woo Hoo - I do so love the color commentary.
:-)
Dr. Bong @ 86
sadly i am on deadline. not a good place to be for live blogging :(
The shrub is lying live right now. Nice Polite Republicans isn’t carrying it. We wont have to hear the BS until the evening news.
John Ziegler is a former RW pundit here in Louisville. He left for L.A. during his sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former girlfriend of his, as well as a local news anchor.
Nice guy .
I do not know how to post links, so I hope this works.
http://www.johnziegler.com/editorial.php?e=180
chimpy is trying to justifying gitmo because every person there wants to murder americans (like that 79 year old man?)
mediadailynews reports that the path to 911 blog is back on line.
why not stop by to let them know how you feel?
.
.
Hugh @ 77
Mickey himself? Way cool!
oops…the nice guy comment was snark. Just wanted to clarify.
If it is correct that ABC plans to broadcast this thing without any “sponsors,” that means one of two things:
(1) That there are one or more secret sponsors (RNC? Wealthy wingnuts?) who are underwriting this, which may be a violation of federal election law or at least be required to be reported; or
(2) Sponsors of ABC’s other programs are, in effect, subsidizing ABC’s costs to produce and air this thing, because they are contributing to ABC’s bottom line. Thus, the logic of contacting or boycotting sponsors of other ABC programs.
neurophius @ 93
*gasp* The Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation! Hey, seriously, whatever happened to that guy? Did he lose interest when people in power stopped getting blowjobs?
Time to go after local advertisers of ABC News affiliates.
Take names, kick ass, set up a database.
OT - Connecticut is under attack by Joe Bush
orangejumpsuit @ 92
Mickey himself? Way cool!
wait ’till you hear what his dog Pluto has to say. He’s already pissed about the demotion he got last week…
curiousgeorge @ 68
Rip it, cut it into smaller chunks, share it via BitTorrent. Cake.
Franken talking about this now, with Brock.
OT,
Looks like Bartcop is a fan.
Quotes
“In the coming days, I’ll deliver a series of speeches describing the nature of
our enemy in the war on terror and our strategy to prevail in this long war.”
— Dubya, Link
“We have a strategy? Really?!?
Could we start using it?”
–Christy Hardin Smith, Link
http://www.bartcop.com/
Kurt @ 99
“Rip it, cut it into smaller chunks, share it via BitTorrent. Cake.”
Some people just don’t know how. besides, how long does seeding take?
Kentucky Woman #93
Clarification unnecessary - just needed to listen for 5 mins!
twolf1
Bush speaking is like watching someone have a psychotic break. He doesn’t answer criticisms. He just goes off into the blue. Everybody at Gitmo is a murderer (except many aren’t). He talks about “questioning” but it’s clear he’s talking about torture. He takes one guy at Gitmo and then uses that as a jumping off point to talk about the CIA detainees. Then he gives another of his famous laundry lists of people and all the “good” info we have gotten from them. He fails to mention all the bad information and lies. He fails to mention that the information potential of those held at Gitmo was exhausted years ago.
Now denies torture. Brings up McCain’s anti-torture bill. Fails to mention his signing statement that laughed at it.
Talks about renditions as returning detainees to their home countries as if it were a good thing and not for torture.
11 CIA detainees have been transferred to Gitmo.
To further demonstrate Gerstein’s FUBAR-ness, they have two, repeat, two joe2006 sites up, both different. In all mercifulness, they should put both of them to sleep.
http://www.joe2006.com/
http://joe2006.com/