In article about release of "Path to 9/11" DVD, LA Times notes Dem criticism of film but not its own

[DeepModem Mom]

Media Matters for America: LA Times notes Dem criticism of Path to 9/11, but not its own review's

Summary: A Los Angeles Times article on the DVD release of ABC's The Path to 9/11 reported that the original miniseries "ignited a political firestorm, almost entirely from high-profile Democratic leaders who viewed its account ... as a right-wing hatchet job," overlooking factual inaccuracies in the film and sharp discrepancies between the film's account of certain events and the findings laid out in the 9-11 Commission's report, upon which ABC claimed the miniseries was based. Those inaccuracies and discrepancies were pointed out in the Times' own review of The Path to 9/11, which also noted the film's "partisan politics" and its "hopeless muddle of the line between fact and 'dramatization.' "

A September 5 Los Angeles Times article by Martin Miller concerning the DVD release of the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, headlined "Is Clinton's candidacy blocking the 'Path to 9/11?' " described the original miniseries, which aired in September 2006, as "highly controversial" and stated that "ven before 'The Path to 9/11' aired on ABC late last summer, the docudrama ignited a political firestorm, almost entirely from high-profile Democratic leaders who viewed its account of events leading up to the terrorist attacks as a right-wing hatchet job on the Clinton administration and its efforts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden." However, by characterizing the criticism as coming from "Democratic leaders who viewed its account ... as a right-wing hatchet job," Miller simply overlooked factual inaccuracies in the film as well as sharp discrepancies between the film's account of certain events and the findings laid out in the 9-11 Commission's report, upon which ABC said in a July 2006 press release the "epic miniseries based." These falsehoods and discrepancies have been documented by Media Matters for America and noted by numerous others, including the Los Angeles Times itself in a review by staff writer Samantha Bonar, who wrote in a review published September 9, 2006, that "the main problem with 'The Path' is that the interspersing of real news footage with dramatized scenes, a technique employed throughout, makes a hopeless muddle of the line between fact and 'dramatization.' "

Despite ABC's assertion in the July 2006 press release that the network regarded it as "absolutely critical" to "get it right," The Path to 9/11 contained inaccurate and even fabricated scenes that cast the Clinton administration as insufficiently aggressive in combating terrorism and that showed President Bush taking aggressive action not indicated in the 9-11 Commission report. In addition -- contrary to Miller's suggestion in the September 5 article -- the film was sharply criticized, not just by partisan Democrats, but by former Clinton administration officials, journalists, and conservatives alike, who noted that significant parts of the "docudrama's" content were not supported by the 9-11 Commission's findings.

Sandy Berger, national security adviser to President Clinton, described one scene in the film as a "total fabrication." Further, Berger and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stated in a September 8 letter, "Actors portraying us do contemptible things we never did, and say things we neither said nor believed." Conservative author and journalist Richard Miniter criticized parts of the film as "based on an Internet myth" and having "no factual basis." In addition to Miniter, numerous others criticized the film's accuracy, as Media Matters has noted....

http://mediamatters.org/items/200709050009?f=h_latest