Shepard Smith must have been having a blood sugar crash or something, because he starts asking Bill Kristol rational questions about the Bush strategy in Iraq. I almost feel sorry for Kristol. Almost…
ABC determined to attack inside America
September 10, 2006 – 11:39 am
Comments Off #
Continue reading “ABC determined to attack inside America” »
Path to 9/11 is an ABC miniseries airing tonight and tomorrow and billed as a docudrama based on the 9/11 Commission Report. The series has been reported to contain scenes that are inaccurate and misleading, and has prompted an outcry from liberal (and even some conservative) bloggers and commenters. Many prominent public figures have spoken out against the film, including Bill Clinton, Richard Clarke, and the film’s star Harvey Keitel. One former FBI agent refused to work on the film as an advisor once he had read the script, and another quit when the producers failed to correct a list of inaccuracies.
The program was written and directed by a pair with strong ties to the right wing. ABC has actively reached out to the right wing in order to drum up support for the program. The movie will be shown around the world, and ABC had made a deal with Scholastic, Inc., to distribute the series to schools along with a companion guide pointing up the supposed documentary aspects of the movie (Scholastic has since altered the guide to focus on media literacy).
Although ABC has made review copies of the series available only to right-wing bloggers and commentators, AmericaBlog has obtained a preview and has found that:
- The movie falsely identifies American Airlines as the carrier that let Mohamed Atta on board despite a security warning. The movie also puts the event at the wrong airport. The airport was in Portland, Maine, and Atta boarded a US Airways flight (facts contained on Page 1 of the 9/11 Commission Report!).
- The movie contains a scene of a Talibani firing bullets at the projected image of President Clinton’s head.
- The movie contains a scene where Clinton’s National Security Advisor Sandy Berger refuses to give the CIA permission to kill Usama bin Laden, even though an agent has bin Laden in his crosshairs. This event never happened.
- The movie even misspells Madeleine Albright’s name.
Continue reading “ABC determined to attack inside America” »
You think liberal blogs are over the top? Color me unimpressed.
July 15, 2006 – 5:58 pm
Comments Off #
I’m actively looking for liberal blogs that take a different tone than the ones I currently read. Anger and frustration, justified though it may be, still is of limited usefulness. Emotional writing may spur me to action, but I rarely feel more than riled up after reading a dozen posts on the outrages du jour. I’m convinced, okay? Now I’m ready to take action. But if I am to carry any arguments from the blogosphere to the real world, how exactly should I construct a cogent conversation with only emotion? Who gives me the building blocks of rational argument that I need if I want to change hearts and minds? Among the blogs I’ve chosen to read until now, I have found damn few who can do that.
That said, I find nothing I read on these blogs as divisive or cartoonishly over-the-top as continually emanates from the conservative noise machine. Jamison Foser’s post today on Media Matters is right on:
Media Matters – “Media Matters”; by Jamison Foser:As recently as July 12, Ann Coulter suggested that staff members of the New York Times be prosecuted for treason. And on July 14, she repeated her criticism of the 9/11 widows, whom she has accused of “enjoying their husbands’ deaths”. How is it that Coulter is not shunned from the public forum. How is it that she is not rebuked by conservative and liberal alike? And she’s only one example. Other conservative pundits are allowed to spew hateful, outrageous speech without question or criticism.
Media pounce on “screeching,” “frothing [liberal] bloggers”—while waving on conservatives who advocate … murder
I don’t think I want to hear anything else about “crazy liberal bloggers.”
I thought “No News” was good news
April 1, 2006 – 10:57 am
1 #
So one of the current right-wing mantras is that the media is ignoring all the good news that’s supposedly happening in Iraq. You know what’s funny to me about that? The media doesn’t even cover good news in this country. Watch local news or look on the front page of any newspaper and what do you see? Fires, car crashes, death, natural disasters… fear, fear, FEAR! I mean, we’re not losing 30 people a day to random suicide bombings in this country, and still there’s nothing in the news but doom and gloom. “If it bleeds, it leads” is the American Way of Journalism. Why is that going to be any different with Iraq?
