There is No Nice Way to Call You People Liars, an Open Letter to ABC

[Bjorn Against]

Dear ABC Disney,

I wish I could put it nicely but sometimes there is no nice way to speak the truth. There is no nice way of telling you that you are lying to the American people. There is no nice way to tell you that you are spreading propaganda to help prop up a man who has killed tens of thousands of civilians in an illegal war of aggression. There is no nice way to tell you that you will never again have any credibility with us, and there is no nice way to tell you that we will do everything in our power to make sure that you don’t have any credibility with anyone else either.

9/11 happened under the watch of George Bush. Period. That is not to say Clinton was perfect in every way, he most certainly was not. I have harshly criticized Clinton many times in the past, but Clinton was not responsible for 9/11 and to suggest otherwise is outright slanderous.

It was not Clinton who got a memo which said “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US” and decided to respond to it by clearing out brush on his ranch. It was not Clinton who was warned repeatedly about the threat Osama bin Laden posed by the previous administration, but chose to ignore those warnings out of sheer partisan arrogance. It was not Clinton’s father who supported the Taliban while he was director of the CIA. It was not Clinton that had ties with the bin Laden family, and invited members of the Taliban to meet with him in Texas about a proposed oil pipeline. It was not Clinton who sat in a classroom reading “My Pet Goat” while this nation was under attack. And it was not Clinton who said of Osama bin Laden, “I just don’t spend that much time on him”.

But of course you will ignore these basic facts, and instead spread the right-wing lie that 9/11 was all Clinton’s fault. Now I know you will tell me that is not your intention instead your intention is to spread a balanced portrayal of the facts of the case, but if you say that you will be lying. You will ask me how I know you are lying when I have not even seen the film yet. Simple. You decided to give advanced screenings of this film to Rush Limbaugh and some right-wing bloggers, but you have refused to show this film to any progressives. How can you possibly claim that decision is not politically biased in any way?

If you choose to air these lies don’t think we will forget about it easily. We won’t. We will go after ABC News tooth and nail, calling you on every lie and every factual error you make. We will not stop until you no longer have any credibility left with anyone. Once your credibility is gone, well then it is much easier to convince people to make a much needed step to improve our nation’s democracy. Yes that means we are going to work to break up the media conglomerates and put new ownership caps on television and radio.

So if you want to continue to show your true colors go ahead and air your 9/11 lies, just don’t think there won’t be any consequences.

Sincerely,
An American who wants the truth

[fooj]

1. Well put.

Yes that means we are going to work to break up the media conglomerates and put new ownership caps on television and radio.

Peace.

[stepnw1f]

2. I Like (nt)

[bahrbearian]

3. Here, Here.

[acmejack]

13. Hear, hear

snip>
Hear hear is an expression that originated as hear him, usually repeated. This imperative was used to call attention to a speaker's words, and naturally developed the sense of a broad expression of favor. This is how it is still used today, although one can always vary one's tone to express different sentiments; the Oxford English Dictionary noted around the turn of the century that the phrase is now the regular form of cheering in the House of Commons, and expresses, according to intonation, admiration, acquiescence, indignation, derision, etc.

As a parliamentary cheer, hear him, hear him! is first recorded in the late 17th century and continued into the 19th; the reduction to hear! or hear, hear! occurred by the late 18th century. However, the use of the verb hear as an imperative meaning listen! is older: a notable example is the parliamentary-sounding Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear (King James Bible, 2 Samuel xx 16).

Aside from the interjection, a number of other forms are found, such as a hear, hear (originally, of course, a hear him) 'a cheer'; hear-hear 'to shout "hear, hear!"'; and hear-hearer 'a person who shouts "hear, hear!"'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear_hear

[bahrbearian]

18. I knew some-one would reply about that..but I ddn't think it was a

big deal. thsnks for the info,,,SP?

[Old and In the Way]

4. A letter, done well.

I endorse your sentiments exactly. We will not forget.

[Joey Liberal]

5. Well done! n/t

[NanceGreggs]

6. WOW!!!

That is ONE DAMNED FINE LETTER!!!

:applause:

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. Hey!

When Nance Greggs says something's a damned fine letter then it is a DAMNED fine letter!

A Nance Greggs fan. :D

[Straight Shooter]

7. Amen!

Well said. Yes, indeed.

Do you hear that, Edward R. Murrow? You've got clones popping up all over the place. :D

[karlrschneider]

8. You got a lot of bang for the buck there, my friend. Well done!

Rec'd and :kick:
:toast:

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blue cat]

10. GREAT POST!

You might want to check dailykos.com for addressess to forward your letter. If we can get some of the sponsors for ABC to quit sponsoring them, it would be a win.

[samsingh]

11. wonderful letter - thank you

[glitch]

12. K & R. They need to do a poll to see just how much of their credibility

remains, whether they air this 6 hour smear campaign commercial or not.

[PoiBoy]

14. Thank you for the excellent post!

I'd love to see everyone who is slandered by this movie file lawsuits against the ABC network and their affiliates.
Can you imagine Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Sandy Berger, et al bringing huge lawsuits against ABC and using the very facts that ABC chooses to ignore against them...?

[gully]

15. Excellent.

Bookmarked and recommended.

[indepat]

16. Bravo, let's excoriate all lying, disingenuous, mendacious media whores

every time they distort the truth, fail to tell the truth or otherwise fail to keep the people informed.

[Bjorn Against]

17. Here is some contact info for ABC

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2065485

Go write some letters, lets make sure that if ABC does air this they know they will have the power of the internet come down hard on them.

[emerald45]

19. GREAT LETTER

Excellent reply!

[newyawker99]

27. Hi emerald45!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Polemicist]

20. We must reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine"....

To restore balance and integrity to our nation's publicly owned airwaves. It is despicable that a The Disney Corporation would air such a egregiously false partisan mockumentary, this close to National Elections, or at any time for that matter.

I've never been madder about anything the Media has done in my lifetime. I will not buy a ticket to a Disney movie. I will not rent a Disney DVD. I will not go to any Disney theme parks, I will not watch ABC television.

And I will do whatever it takes to end Disney's ownership of one of America's largest networks. This goes even beyond the Sinclair Media fiasco prior to the 2004 elections and that partisan attempt to rewrite history prior to the election.

ABC has told all Democrats, Liberals, and Progressives to eat shit. What will we do in response?

[yellerpup]

21. Excellent letter.

I hope it works!

[leveymg]

22. Here's my email to Scholastic, Cc: ABC

Subject: Fairfax Co. VA Schools - Scholastic's Involvement with ABC 9/11 Miniseries
Date: 9/7/2006 11:00:29 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
From: XXXXXX
Reply To:
To: [e-mail]
CC: [e-mail] ; [e-mail] ; [e-mail]

Richard Robinson
CEO
Scholastic Publications

Dear Mr. Robinson:

This is to notify you that unless Scholastic severs its relationship with the ABC mini-series, "The Path to 9/11", it is my intention to organize the XXXXXXX County PTA in a permanent boycott of Scholastic products. With 144,000 students, XXXXXX County, XXXXXXX is one of the largest school systems in the mid-Atlantic region.

According to the NYT, a number of highly-placed former officials within the Clinton Administration have found the mini-series to have serious factual errors. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/washington/07path.htm... The mini-series appears to be a partisan, inaccurate and libelous attack on Democrats.

As the Vice President of the PTA in a XXXXXX County school, I feel that I have an obligation to my child and to other students throughout the County and the State of XXXXXX to do what I can to prevent a politically-biased and inaccurate account of the 9/11 tragedy from reaching children.

Please also be aware that I am active within the local Democratic Committee, XXXXXX County being a predominantly Democratic area, and intend to carry this message to others through the Party.

I strongly advise you to immediately announce a halt to distribution of the offending product.

Sincerely yours,

[Bjorn Against]

25. Great letter...

When they know they could lose the business of an entire school district they will start paying attention

[mnhtnbb]

23. Superb letter!

[KansDem]

26. One could understand Disney's role. After all, they created "FantasyLand"

But ABC should know better...

Excellent letter! I especially like the "There is No Nice Way to Call You People Liars." Sticks it to them in a polite, civil way.

[MasonJar]

28. Great! Send it to everyone who can read; do NOT bother with

the Stump in D.C.

[Contrary1]

29. I just received this email:

Dear ______ ,

Thank you for telling ABC that we deserve the truth about 9/11. More than 40,000 of you have joined us in the last 48 hours to send a message to ABC. Your voices are being heard and the controversy has now been covered by all the cable news networks, the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other media outlets.

We need your help to keep the pressure on. Are you ready to take the next step?

As you may know, ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Company. Today we are asking you to contact the Chairman of the Board of Disney, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell. We need to remind him that 9/11 was a national tragedy, and that politicizing and misrepresenting the facts about 9/11 is wrong.

Senator George J. Mitchell
T: [phone]
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]

Use your voice and speak your mind, but remember to be polite. Please copy us at [e-mail] so we can keep track of your comments.

Senator Mitchell has a long and distinguished career both inside and outside government, and he knows how important it is to accurately represent historical events. News reports and our independent research have demonstrated that there are numerous falsehoods and misrepresentations in this docudrama.

The events leading up to 9/11 are too important to play politics with the facts. Please call and email Senator Mitchell today and tell him that telling the truth about 9/11 matters.

Senator George J. Mitchell
T: [phone]
T: [phone]
F: [phone]
[e-mail]

You can keep up with the latest on the ABC-Disney controversy on our blog: www.ThinkProgress.org

Thank you,

Judd Legum on behalf of our entire team at ThinkProgress.org and the Center for American Progress Action Fund

[yorkiemommie1]

30. done

People will be studying these events hundreds of years from now and we owe it to them to leave them the truth!