ABC's "The Path to 9-11" - Docudrama or Mock-u-mentary?

Mock-u-mentary is exactly what Keith Olbermann and numerous others are calling the ABC production to air on Sunday, September 10th, and Monday, September 11th as the five-year anniversary of the terror attacks comes to bear. Mocking the production seems far more kind than what I've heard of how this production treats the truth of what happened to allow the devastating damage that beautiful, blue second Tuesday in September of 2001.

Written by a "prominent conservative", and supposedly based on material taken from the report by the 9-11 Commission - the one President Bush fought tooth and nail not to appoint and then originally filled it with liars and secret keepers like Henry Kissinger, this production appears to take as much liberty with "the truth" as almost anything the Bushies do or say.

Is this REALLY how we choose to remember the events of that day? Is this how we honor the deaths of nearly 3,000 people?

I don't think so.

Look, I can cope with an account that places much blame on former President Bill Clinton. I do think he and his administration bear some blame here. But seriously, haven't enough lies been told? Hasn't far more than enough truth been withheld and sugar-coated?

This production is shameful on so many different levels. First, Tom Keane, the former governor of New Jersey and (obviously) a Republican, the man who replaced Kissinger as the chairman of the 9-11 commission, is often hailed as a great man and a great American. Before I found out that he largely co-authored this incredible piece of crap, I used to hold a higher opinion of Keane than I have for most of the Bushies.

In an interview done with Keane and shown in part during "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" tonight, Keane SAYS himself that he co-authored the script and was given complete authority to scrap or revise anything that did not seem to follow what the 9-11 commission determined. With this in mind, Keane has COMPLETE CULPABILITY for the lies perpetrated in this piece. My respect for him has now been completely exhausted.

Roger Cressy, Bush's own former top counterterrorism expert completely bashes this production as an extremely poorly done and propagandized exercise, according to this by Kos at DailyKos.

Here is what ThinkProgress notes about it:

ABC won’t give President Clinton, Madeleine Albright or Sandy Berger a copy of its 9/11 docudrama, “The Path to 9/11.” But there is virtually nothing about the film ABC won’t share with the right-wing blogosphere.

For example, an ABC insider sent this missive to right-wing blogger Hugh Hewitt about potential edits to the film:

The Disney execs met all through the weekend - unheard of in this business - debating what changes would be made and what concessions should be given. Here is what looks to be the conclusion:

- There will be a handful of tweaks made to a few scenes.
- They are minor, and nuance in most cases - a line lift here, a tweak to the edit there.
- There are 900 screeners out there. When this airs this weekend, there will be a number of people who will spend their free evenings looking for these changes and will be hard pressed to identify them. They are that minor.
- The average viewer would not be able to tell the difference between the two versions.
- The message of the Clinton Admin failures remains fully intact.

Read the full email to Hewitt here.

Right now, former Gov. Tom Kean (R-NJ) — a paid senior advisor to this film — is digging in and defending ABC. If the network is making edits to the film to correct errors, they should tell everyone, not just right-wing bloggers.

The fact that ABC continues to cater to Rush Limbaugh and conservative bloggers, while refusing to show even the most basic courtesy to a former President of the United States, says a lot about what this “docudrama” is really about.

Media Matters has extensive coverage of this, including here and here.

ABC should be ashamed of itself. Hell, I daresay I feel their broadcasting license should be PULLED because of this. The airwaves belong to us and ABC has shat upon us by allowing this production to be aired.