A License to Lie
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Fri, 09/08/2006
As BuzzFlash readers know by now, the ABC Television Network, owned by entertainment behemoth Disney, has spent $40 million to run a commercial-free, fictionally-"enhanced" account of the events leading up to and surrounding 9/11. The fiction, by all accounts, comes from fabricated scenes that place much of the blame for 9/11 on the Clinton Administration. Some of these television "moments" were made up out of whole cloth. In short, like the Bush Administration itself, you won’t be able to tell the truth from the lies. A project of an avowed right wing shill, the 9/11 "Disney in Wonderland" television drama appears to be a pre-election pay-off to the Bush Administration.
We have been running a slew of stories about this travesty on BuzzFlash this past week, so we won’t get into the details. But we bet our bottom dollar that you won’t see a scene of Bush kicking a CIA briefing officer out of the room after the man gave Bush a document entitled ""Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." This occurred on August 6, 2001. According to a recent book by Ron Suskind, Bush’s reaction to being told that our nation was about to come under likely terrorist attack was to get peevish for having his vacation disrupted. He kicked the briefer out of the room by dismissing him with these words, "'All right, you’ve covered your ass." Bush then did nothing – absolutely nothing – to attempt to forestall the attack or prevent hijackings by having heightened screening implemented at airports. He did nothing at all, except go back to relax on his month-long vacation in Crawford. Do you think that will be in the film?
Or how about the scene of Bush cluelessly reading "My Pet Goat" in a classroom at the Booker Elementary School while America was under attack and people were leaping from the twin towers in New York. Will that be in this piece of Mickey Mouse GOP propaganda? We somehow doubt it.
Suffice it to say, ABC would not run a $40 million film that is a hit job on the Democrats – and leaves Bush barely grazed – a few weeks before a national election if it weren’t expecting something in return from the White House. For-profit companies don’t blow $40 million without advertising revenue out of "goodwill." They want something in return – and you can be sure, if the Republicans maintain control of both houses of Congress, Disney will be well-rewarded by the Bush Administration -– well-rewarded indeed. We long ago arrived at the point in the world of television that broadcast networks were given the public airwaves basically free of cost – and then abused that privilege by putting profits before service to the public. They are given a license to lie in order to ingratiate themselves with the GOP and reap a return on their political investment by getting legislative and regulatory financial "advantages."...
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorials/086