Eat The Press

"Path To 9/11" Heismanned By NFL Fans, Thinking People

Yahoo! News |  TPM Muckracker |  Posted Monday September 11, 2006 at 03:58 PM

After a huge controversy and not-at-all-huge resulting edits, ABC "docu-drama" (aka "fabri-fiction") had a viewership of 13 million, getting drubbed by Sunday Night Football and the brother-on-brother action between Eli and Peyton Manning, which drew 20.7 million viewers. CBS drew 10.6 million viewers for its third airing of its Katie Couric-hosted 9/11 documentary, which did not attempt to pass off invented episodes as actual fact.

Bill Clinton, who along with Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger had certain events attributed to them that did not happen, opted for football, according to Clinton Foundation spokesman Jay Carson. His lawyers did see the film, however, and fired off a strongly-worded letter to Bob Iger dated yesterday saying they were "deeply disappointed" that ABC and Disney aired something that was "fraught with error and contained contrived scenes that are directly contradicted by the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report." (I noted earlier today that, despite the obligatory discliamer before the film, the ABC promotional material was overwhelmingly suggestive it was grounded in fact). Clinton lawyers Bruce Lindsey and Doug Band rebuked Iger for falling shor on his promise to "personally tak[e] the responsibility" for the required edits; instead, the doc " invented its own version of history." Case in point: "There is not enough room here to fully document the fiction in your film." Clinton's lawyer can have the last word here, because they're right:

That the film directly contradicts the findings of the 9/11 Commission is troubling. That it defames dedicated public officials is tragic. But the fact that it misleads millions of people about the most tragic and consequential event in recent history is disgraceful.

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