The Sufferable Ass » truth http://www.sufferableass.com Quietly, lovingly, judging you Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:27:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Holy Olbermann http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/17/holy-olbermann/ http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/17/holy-olbermann/#comments Mon, 18 Sep 2006 01:54:41 +0000 The Ass http://www.sufferableass.com/?p=51 I’m a little behind on this, but I wanted to mark this special commentary from Keith Olbermann, given on 9/11/2006 in front of the former site of the Twin Towers. It is a powerful monologue; take a few minutes to watch.

]]> http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/17/holy-olbermann/feed/ 0 Oh no she didn’t… http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/14/oh-no-she-didnt/ http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/14/oh-no-she-didnt/#comments Fri, 15 Sep 2006 06:43:12 +0000 The Ass http://www.sufferableass.com/?p=49 Via Atrios: “I’d like to state for the record that America is not tired of fighting terrorism; America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican party…” Preach it, Sister Landrieu!

]]> http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/14/oh-no-she-didnt/feed/ 0 ABC determined to attack inside America http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/10/abc-determined-to-attack-inside-america/ http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/10/abc-determined-to-attack-inside-america/#comments Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:39:29 +0000 The Ass http://www.sufferableass.com/?p=46 ShyMickeyPath 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.


ABC has steadfastly refused to pull or alter the series, despite  mounting pressure on the network, its affiliates, the show’s advertisers, and ABC’s parent company, Disney. The  widowed husband of a former Disney Vice President  wrote a letter pleading with Disney chief Robert Iger not to air the series. Blogger Matt Stoller has pointed out the  serious political ramifications this could have on Disney’s attempt to get favorable legislation passed in Congress.

As several have pointed out, conservatives raised similar arguments and used similar pressure to get CBS to pull a biopic about Ronald Reagan which contained inaccuracies and fake scenes. Disney’s refusal to pull the movie stands in stark contrast to their attempts to block the release of the movie Farenheit 9/11 in 2004.

While I haven’t seen the movie yet… and I’m not sure if I’ll watch it…the broadcast of this series is sure to be a black eye for ABC and an embarrasment to Disney. Path to 9/11 appears to be a sop to right-wing fantasies, slanderous to members of the Clinton administration, and inordinately supportive of the Bush administration. If it is as inaccurate and misleading as has been reported, it is an absolutely despicable, calculated, and morally reprehensible choice for ABC to air it.

Full disclosure: I own stock in and am a former employee of Disney, ABC’s parent company.

UPDATE: I’ve just watched several clips of the movie, available here. (Note that these clips are superimposed with commentary from the Livejournal poster.) Things are worse than I imagined. Not only is this representative of the worst kind of television writing and acting, there appear to be a series of attacks on American laws and on due process coming out of the mouths of the characters on screen. The whole thing smacks of cheap propaganda. It is absolutely chilling.

I think it might be time to sell that Disney stock.

UPDATE 2: Okay, so I watched the whole first part of the mini-series. My attitude remains basically unchanged: this series is manipulative and propagandistic. I’m puzzled as to why the filmmakers chose to “dramatize” some scenes in the way they did, when the reality that has been reported by the people who lived through the events could have been just as dramatic. It is puzzling to me, too, why ABC would choose to run this movie without advertisements, and also without providing some context for the movie other than the disclaimer slides. Why not have Richard Clarke, who’s on the ABC payroll, and Stephen Root (who plays Clarke in the movie) record an introduction where they emphasize to viewers that this movie is a fictional account based on real events? Why not have an ABC News anchor host a post-show discussion with the director and writer about why they chose to portray certain scenes the way they did?

The movie focuses heavily on the combat and crime aspects of the terrorism events in its purview, and almost not at all on the impact of these events on the victims. That feels exploitative to me. This is not a movie that honors the dead, or calls us to unite in a higher purpose, but which picks at the scab covering our collective wounds from 9/11. It doesn’t make us feel compassion, or identify with any of the characters. It keeps the wider range of human emotion at a distance, and only asks us to fear and distrust. This is poor storytelling; I don’t know who any of these characters really are. I know their politics. I know many of them seem to have a healthy disdain for American laws and due process, but I am no more illuminated about their condition than I was before I started watching the broadcast.

Finally, as a former actor myself, I’d like to say a word to the players in this film, many of whom I respect greatly: you have a duty to your craft, to your profession, to your country, and to yourselves to tell the truth. You have a duty not to allow yourself to be used to manipulate an audience. Your purpose as a storyteller is to illuminate. Many of you associated with this program have failed in that respect. Now, I have a great deal of sympathy for the struggling actor who needs to put food on the table, but those of you with the luxury of picking your projects have no excuse for agreeing to be a part of this.

MORE LINKS:

]]> http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/09/10/abc-determined-to-attack-inside-america/feed/ 0 This is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long, long time… http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/04/04/this-is-the-funniest-thing-ive-read-in-a-long-long-time/ http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/04/04/this-is-the-funniest-thing-ive-read-in-a-long-long-time/#comments Wed, 05 Apr 2006 07:14:04 +0000 The Ass http://www.sufferableass.com/?p=32 The Slipperiest Slope
As you all know, Giblets would love for gays and lesbians to be able to enjoy the same marriage rights as normal, non-icky Americans, but the sheer destructive power of their gay cooties threatens to destroy civilization as we know it! And now there is a new and even deadlier danger: Respected Thinker Charles Krauthammer has discovered the existence of polygamy through the cutting-edge research of HBO and keenly concluded that any attempt to legalize gay marriage will inevitably legalize polygamy as well, leaving America at the mercy of unstoppable hordes of ever-copulating Mormon group sex brigades! But gay marriage and polygamy are only the beginning, because the dark road that begins with equal rights leads inexorably to the next terrifying step: legalized, state-sponsored robot sex!
Read the next couple of paragraphs, and prepare to howl…
]]> http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/04/04/this-is-the-funniest-thing-ive-read-in-a-long-long-time/feed/ 0 The One-Percent Rule http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/01/24/rule-1-the-one-percent-rule/ http://www.sufferableass.com/2006/01/24/rule-1-the-one-percent-rule/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:32:00 +0000 The Ass http://www.sufferableass.com/?p=10 Flippingoff
Everyone speaks – at the minimum – one percent of truth.
No matter what anyone tells you, at least one percent of it is true. No matter if it’s coming from your worst enemy, or the biggest idiot you know, if you listen closely and carefully, you will be able to uncover a grain of truth in any statement.

Knowing that this rule is true forces you to pay attention to what a person is telling you, to listen deeply and attentively to even the most hostile or manipulative of interlocutors. Because whatever they say will hold truth for you, an opportunity to learn and grow, and you must never miss a moment to hear it.

In practicing this rule, I have come to understand that truth is not binary. Rarely are statements either totally false or totally true. There is always nuance. Truth is like the volume dial on your stereo; it can be all the way down at one percent (barely audible, but still there) or full blast or anywhere in between.

Acknowledging the small grain of truth in what others are saying is a vital step in gaining inner wisdom, and to keep from killing everyone you come in contact with.

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