Open Letter to ABC: Don't Airbrush 9/11

[whimsicaldeb]

Source:
http://openlettertoabc.blogspot.com/

Additional Information and updates:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/911/

Excerpts from http://openlettertoabc.blogspot.com/

What's this all about?

ABC/Disney plans to memorialize the fifth anniversary of 9/11 with a fictional docudrama called "The Path to 9/11". Written by an avowed right-wing activist, this work of fiction directly contradicts the accepted record of the 9/11 Commission Report. President Clinton and former administration officials were denied an advance copy; Rush Limbaugh and obscure right-wing bloggers saw it last week. ABC plans to distribute this docudrama to 100,000 educators across the country. We've set up this site to encourage ABC to change its strategy. READ MORE.

Leading Historians Call For Cancellation of "Fraudulent" ABC 9/11 Docudrama
Dear Robert Iger:

We write as professional historians, who are deeply concerned by the continuing reports about ABC's scheduled broadcast of "The Path to 9/11." These reports document that this drama contains numerous flagrant falsehoods about critical events in recent American history. The key participants and eyewitnesses to these events state that the script distorts and even fabricates evidence into order to mislead viewers about the responsibility of numerous American officials for allegedly ignoring the terrorist threat before 2000.

The claim by the show's producers, broadcaster, and defenders, that these falsehoods are permissible because the show is merely a dramatization, is disingenuous and dangerous given their assertions that the show is also based on authoritative historical evidence. Whatever ABC's motivations might be, broadcasting these falsehoods, connected to the most traumatic historical event of our times, would be a gross disservice to the public. A responsible broadcast network should have nothing to do with the falsification of history, except to expose it. We strongly urge you to halt the show's broadcast and prevent misinforming Americans about their history.

Sincerely,
Arthur Schlesinger
Sean Wilentz, Princeton University
Michael Kazin, Georgetown University
Lizbeth Cohen, Harvard University,
Nicholas Salvatore, Cornell University;
Ted Widmer, Washington College;
Rick Perlstein, Independent Scholar;
David Blight, Yale University;
Eric Alterman, City University of New York;
Beverly Gage, Yale University.
(List in formation)

The scheduling of the docudrama has raised a firestorm of criticism from educators, congressional leaders and former President Bill Clinton. For additional information on the controversy and the opposition from leading Americans, please check: openlettertoabc.blogspot.com, and thinkprogress.org, and www.firedoglake.com.

--end excerpt

....

Email your local ABC affiliates, email your local schools, email your local newspapers requesting that they not show the Airbrushed ABC version of 9/11.

In addition, speak up in support of CBS airing the original version of their 9/11 documentary.

Thank you.


Excerpt from:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/09/0 ... 28672.html

Broadcasters say the hesitancy of some CBS affiliates to air a powerful Sept. 11 documentary next week proves there's been a chilling effect on the First Amendment since federal regulators boosted penalties for television obscenities after Janet Jackson's breast was exposed at a Super Bowl halftime show.

"This is example No. 1," said Martin Franks, executive vice president of CBS Corp., of the decision by two dozen CBS affiliates to replace or delay "9/11" -- which has already aired twice without controversy -- over concerns about some of the language used by the firefighters in it.

Related News Stories

* Profanity In 9/11 Documentary Stokes Controversy…

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/articl ... aking+News
Breaking News
AFA Puts Out Alert On CBS' 9/11
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/28/2006 6:25:00 AM

CBS stations can expect to receive some e-mail complaints about their airing of the riveting documentary 9/11 even before they air it, and almost certainly indecency complaints afterwards.

One of the two major indecency complaint filers, the Mississippi-based American Family Association, has sent out an action alert under the heading "CBS To Air Profanity-Laden Program," asking members to complain to the FCC and CBS affiliates and to "share this information with your Sunday School class."

CBS will air content warnings before and during the documentary's Sept. 10 airing. The show, which has aired twice before unedited, features firemen and other emergency workers swearing in the heat of one of the most cataclysmic events of our time.

CBS has said it does not expect to have any problems with the FCC, nor do affiliates contacted by B&C last week, pointing to the FCC's decision that the FCC found that the swearing in film "Saving Private Ryan" was not indecent in context.

But the FCC has cracked down on profanity, including ruling that some swearing in another documentary--on bluesmen on PBS--was indecent.

Some CBS stations are using the following language to explain their approach to the show: "

“We appreciate your concerns regarding the language in the “9/11” special.

"We feel strongly that censoring the content of a broadcast such as this one would compromise the subject matter in a way that would do a disservice to the vast majority of our audience. Therefore, CBS has chosen to air the filmed sequences from September 11, 2001 in “9/11” in the same manner as the initial two broadcasts of the program on March 10, 2002 and September 11, 2002.

"In order to ensure that viewers are aware of the language, we will include warnings in the broadcast, and Robert De Niro, who will again serve as host in a newly taped introduction to the program, will also alert viewers to the graphic language. This will allow ample notice for viewers to seek other programming if they feel this broadcast is not appropriate for their household.”

[stilltrucking]

ok
thanks for posting

[bohonato]

You know who else attempted to blatantly rewrite history? Adolf (s)Hitler. I'm not one to make Third Reich/Bush Regime comparisions, but honestly...

And censorship...Who honestly can watch the footage of 9-11 and not at least think 'Oh, Shit'.

[whimsicaldeb]

You know who else attempted to blatantly rewrite history? Adolf (s)Hitler. I'm not one to make Third Reich/Bush Regime comparisions, but honestly...

And censorship...Who honestly can watch the footage of 9-11 and not at least think 'Oh, Shit'.

Censorship, propaganda have been around forever … my first thoughts when discovering this issue were of China, North Korea, that’s how it is for them right now and have been for a long while now.

The point is that the people who paid for this production hooked up with Scholastic with the intent to market this "adjusted" version of 9/11 as a teaching tool for our kids in school - directed mostly at the high school level. That personally involves me because my son is in high school.

Reference:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200609060008
ABC and Scholastic release skewed Path to 9/11 "Discussion Guide" for high school teachers to assign to students

Summary: In conjunction with ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, Scholastic and ABC have released a "Discussion Guide for the Classroom" aimed at high school teachers nationwide to "[e]ncourage your students and their families to watch The Path to 9/11 and use the accompanying" discussion guide as part of their lesson plan. A Media Matters for America review of the material finds it to be rife with conservative misinformation.

The second point is, this is something we can do something about and take action on instead of just wringing our hands in despair. We may not be able to impeach the president with effectiveness, but we can write letters to our ABC affiliates, and our schools and newspapers bringing and keeping this issue to light with effectiveness.

As we write our emails to complain, at the very least we’ve brought the controversy to the forefront, instead of behind the scenes where they've been working, where it can be seen and addressed for what it is and in the process give our schools, teachers and our kids a heads-up and opportunity to face this fraud, and to see and talk about the discrepancies, the actions and ethics behind these actions, even if they should still choose to play this video docudrama to the students.

With that, we'll have the best possible outcome from this situation. Because censorship and propaganda have been around forever and will continue to be, thus learning to see through it and how to handle things when it comes to light is what we have to learn, do and teach our children to do.

[stilltrucking]

Made for TV: Bill Clinton's Flawed Record on Terrorism
Posted on Monday, September 11, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.

SourcesABC's docudrama, The Path to 9/11, is a “mix of fact, fantasy and deliberate distortion,” says a post on the liberal blog Firedoglake.com. Some would say the same of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which was a terrific film based partly on the historical record, but was clearly a piece of agitprop. The Path to 9/11 deserves to be critiqued and criticized, but the hysterical crusade against it—including calls for censorship—is as overblown, partisan, and hypocritical as the conservative attack on Fahrenheit 9/11.

http://www.harpers.org/index.html

[whimsicaldeb]

Made for TV: Bill Clinton's Flawed Record on Terrorism
Posted on Monday, September 11, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.

SourcesABC's docudrama, The Path to 9/11, is a “mix of fact, fantasy and deliberate distortion,” says a post on the liberal blog Firedoglake.com. Some would say the same of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which was a terrific film based partly on the historical record, but was clearly a piece of agitprop. The Path to 9/11 deserves to be critiqued and criticized, but the hysterical crusade against it—including calls for censorship—is as overblown, partisan, and hypocritical as the conservative attack on Fahrenheit 9/11.

http://www.harpers.org/index.html

Michael Moore didn’t create and market “Fahrenheit” as an educational tool. It became one anyway on it’s own. But MM did not deliberately set out to create a film designed to be used as a teaching tool in schools across this nation.

That’s a big difference. The agendas behind the films.

Update: Letter writing has helped – made a difference at least in my hometown area.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 498380.htm

Tue, Sep. 12, 2006
Teachers grapple with teaching 9/11
By Shirley Dang
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Excerpt:

Five years after a watershed moment in American history, teachers across California and the nation continue to grapple with how best to explain Sept. 11 to young people.

Most elementary and middle schools recognize the event with a memorial rather than a lesson. New high school textbooks often present Sept. 11 as a mere footnote, showing the difficulty of explaining a politically charged subject that straddles the fence between current event and historical milestone.

"It's a tricky business," said Gilbert Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, a nonprofit research group that critiques social studies books.

"Unlike events that occurred long ago -- say the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, where there's an established body of information and a relative consensus among scholars and historians -- events this recent are more in the realm of current events," Sewall said. "By no means have they been digested by scholars."

The debate on how to teach 9/11 jumped into the limelight this week after educational publisher Scholastic pulled its Sept. 11 online study guides, which were tied to "The Path to 9/11," a controversial ABC movie that aired Sunday and Monday.

The film, advertised to 25,000 high school teachers as a potential learning tool, has drawn fire from Democrats. They criticized the film as historically inaccurate and unfairly placing blame on the Clinton Administration for failing to nab terrorists before the deadly day five years ago.

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, called on teachers across the country to ban the docudrama from the classroom.

"It's a fiction, which is fine," Miller said. "But if you're going to use it to teach in the schools, there has to be a way to tell students what's fact and what's fiction."

The state of California does not have guidelines for teaching about 9/11 as part of history class, nor does the law require it, said Tom Adams, executive director of curriculum for the California Department of Education. However, in other states, such as New Jersey, schools must teach about the War on Terror, and as part of that may include segments on 9/11.

–end excerpt

My complaint about this story in my local paper is that it wasn’t just Democrats complaining, and that people were not complaining simply because it inaccurately blamed the Clinton Administration … every kinds was complaining (dems/republicans/all types) and were complaining for two main reasons:

1) The volume of inaccuracies and out right lies in the program itself.

and

2) That these knowingly distortion events, inaccuracies and lies were being deliberately marketed to teachers/schools across this nation to be used as a teaching tool.

None the less, even this controversy has now become part of the "history" of the aftermath of 9/11 as it's unfolding.

One of the agendas behind the marketing of "Path" by the producers, Disney and ABC was the intent to target our schools, our teachers, and our children. For ultra conservatives to slip past and fill the gap of what they know needs to be taught, with what and how they wanted 9/11 to be taught - not just their side along side the other sides, but their version only ... and fictionized version at that.

Great for TV, but not for education.

When Disney and ABC joined hands with these underhanded actions, they breached a long standing public trust and burnt a bridge of fairness that’s going to be most difficult to rebuild, if ever.

And they did it to themselves...

…

PBS Newshour on "The Path to 9/11": A Bad Idea From The Start From The Start -- Steven G. Brant; Huffington Post Blog

13 minute youtube Newshour interview (two parts)with Michael Delli Carpini, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, and Robert Thompson, Founding Director of The Blyer Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

Worth a listen.

[Doreen Peri]

This is a very important topic, Deb.

Thank you .... I don't have much to say at the moment because I have to hit all your links and think some more before I speak to it... plus I've been tongue-tied.. writing anything isn't working lately.

I know my daughter has a lot of questions (she's 13) and it's tough to even attempt to answer them given that I have questions, too. We definitely do not want to offer our children (or anybody for that matter) re-written slanted history.

That's what we get every day though from the media so???

What to do?

What do you suggest we say to the TV stations when we write? That we don't want slanted rewritten history? They'd deny it.

i'd appreciate any wording you can suggest. Thanks much!

[stilltrucking]

I like Harper's Magazine
I thought you would be interested in seeing the article. I am not staking out a position deb it was just FYI..
I tried to watch the movie but I could not. It seemed to me that Condoleeza Rice was emerging as the hero of the story. This woman who prides herself on being “a student of history.” Dam damn damn I don’t want to go there, I will start ranting.

Yes
You make a good point about the teaching aid. I have no idea what is in history textbooks these days.

I find it interesting that I can still remember some teachers from fifty years ago. Mr. Waskow, who taught American history not just what was in the textbooks, not sentimentalized patriotic propaganda, he taught the good, the bad, and the ugly. God bless teachers who love to teach.


Phyllis Schlafly
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2003/a ... 8-06.shtml

Edit
Sorry Doreen I was posting when you posted that. I would like to hear suggestions too.

[firsty]

my biggest concern is that my children, 7 and 3, will grow up in schools that have textbooks which lie about what is happening right now.

unless we insist we be told the truth, we are going to have a seed generation that has no idea what the world was like before bushco got to power.

this is the most important time in america's history.

[whimsicaldeb]

I know my daughter has a lot of questions (she's 13) and it's tough to even attempt to answer them given that I have questions, too. We definitely do not want to offer our children (or anybody for that matter) re-written slanted history.

What do you suggest we say to the TV stations when we write? That we don't want slanted rewritten history? They'd deny it.

i'd appreciate any wording you can suggest. Thanks much!

my biggest concern is that my children, 7 and 3, will grow up in schools that have textbooks which lie about what is happening right now.

unless we insist we be told the truth, we are going to have a seed generation that has no idea what the world was like before bushco got to power.

this is the most important time in america's history.

We share the same concerns.

As to the question of where & how & what to write ... Media Matters has a balance helpful section under there "Take Action" section called "What You Can Do" located here:"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200508220010

They have good advice, samples and suggestions. Media Matters also has a mini suggestion on each page of their "Path" issue coverage that reads ...

When contacting the media, please be polite and professional. Express your specific concerns regarding that particular news report or commentary, and be sure to indicate exactly what you would like the media outlet to do differently in the future.

Works well when contacting teachers and principles as well.

It works, is working and is helping set the tone and future right now ... squeaky wheels are heard (pro & con) so we might as well all begin begin squeaking.

The more that squeak about the same thing, the better and faster it works - the right wingers already know and have been doing this.

What's equally important is not to over squeak thus turning those you want to have hear you, away. Less is more, and polite is always best.

So it's okay to say or write to your children's teacher/school - your newspapers/your local TV and radio stations and express how you're feeling and concerns ... “I want my child taught the truth (firsty), I'm concerned about my child being exposed to re-written slanted history (Doreen).

It’s okay to say/ask things such as:

I'm concerned about the accuracy of the message in "The Path" and what type of imprints will be left on my child's mind from watching those false and misleading segments. How do they plan to present this video and how they plan to balance it's message with those messages of those who oppose it? Do they plan to address the controversy - and will it be included in the classroom discussions if this video is shown?

It used to be “Teacher’s – leave those kids alone.” (Pink Floyd; Another Brick In The Wall)

Now teachers are our last line of defense against this type of blatant one sided politicalism. By far most teachers work hard at, and do a good job, with keeping their personal biases out of the picture … or clearing stating them up front … while allow the kids to hash it out. In addition most of our kids are not nearly as gullible as their parents are … so keeping faith that with persistence things will ultimately come out well and more truth than lies will come out of all this is easy to keep. But we still need to do our parts, by giving our help and support whenever and where ever it's needed.

As those work to spin this to be in their direction only, our letters and support come in and counter-balance, stopping the spinning while bringing the behind-the-scene, up-till-now, hidden people and actions themselves up to the surface, to light, thus making it easier to have an open review and these actions themselves be part of any classroom discussion. Plus, they set a good example to our children of what can be done, should be done, to counter these types of actions in the future.

That’s how writing and speaking out/up – helps, supports. Plus it soesn't take long, nor is it hard to do, either.

...

“Promoters/Marketing Agents/Recruiters/and Zealots” … Leave those kids alone!” - (my new motto)

I tried to watch the movie but I could not. It seemed to me that Condoleeza Rice was emerging as the hero of the story. This woman who prides herself on being “a student of history.” Dam damn damn I don’t want to go there, I will start ranting.

We didn’t watch it ~ Hubby & son watched the season premier of the Simpsons and I decided to read instead. Ending up reading novelist Martin Amis’s current article The Age of Horrorism from The Observer online.

[whimsicaldeb]

PS ... Ir you're really interested I can't stress enough to take 13 minutes out of your day and listen to what these two men bring up and say in this Newshour interview - they truly all the bases and issues ...

PBS Newshour on "The Path to 9/11": A Bad Idea From The Start From The Start -- Steven G. Brant; Huffington Post Blog

13 minute youtube Newshour interview (two parts)with Michael Delli Carpini, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, and Robert Thompson, Founding Director of The Blyer Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

(...they truly all the bases and issues ...)

With the exception of one - even if we do come up with new rules of how to do movies/films such as these ~ doesn't mean that we can't (or on occassion shouldn't) break them.

Anyway - give them a listen, I don't think you'll be dissappointed. (imo)

[firsty]

letter writing is for penpals and lovers. fuck letter writing. take to the streets with bullhorns and fists upraised.

[bohonato]

"It suggests to me news and entertainment are getting dangerously intertwined, and I do not think that is good for the country, becuase an event of this consequence is very hard to understand."

-Lee Hamilton, former Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission

Thanks for the Newshour link; definitely some good points.