Path To 9/11 Writer Complains Of ABC’s Decision To Block His DVD, Compares Network To Stalin

[CatWoman]

Cyrus Nowrasteh, the avowed conservative activist who wrote the screenplay for ABC’s infamous docudrama The Path To 9/11, complains today in the Wall Street Journal that his fictional drama is being censored. On the one-year anniversary of the release of his film, Nowrasteh writes:

Left-leaning pundits, politicos and bloggers waxed hysterical about its supposed inaccuracies and anti-Clinton bias, though the vast majority of them had not seen it.

It wasn’t just the left, Cyrus. Conservatives protested almost as vociferously, calling his portrayal of 9/11 “defamatory,” “unacceptable,” and “strewn with a lot of problems.”

Nowrasteh repeatedly claimed his film was based on the 9/11 Commission report, but numerous members of 9/11 Commission spoke up to indicate that the docudrama did not reflect their findings. Counterterrorism analysts Richard Clarke and Roger Cressey, both of whom served in the Clinton and Bush administrations, said that key scenes in the film had no basis in reality.

Now Cyrus is trying to revise history. He complains that ABC’s decision not to release the DVD version of Path to 9/11 is censorship worthy of Stalin:

This passive self-censorship is just as effective as anything Joseph Stalin or Big Brother could impose. The result is the same: the curbing of free speech and creative expression, and the suppression of a viewpoint that may be an inconvenient truth for some politicians.

The real inconvenient truth for Nowrasteh is the fact that his film was never about objectivity. Much of the public first learned about the movie when Rush Limbaugh began talking about it. Limbaugh said, “The film really zeros in on the shortcomings of the Clinton administration in doing anything about militant Islamofascism or terrorism during its administration. It cites failures of Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright and Sandy Burglar.”

Nowrasteh later was forced to concede that his fictional drama was “not a documentary.” He even acknowledged that key scenes in the report were dramatized. “Accidents occur,” he explained.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/11/cyrus-wsj/

[Cheap_Trick]

1. cry me a river Nowtrash

you lying sack of shit

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Can't he just buy the rights to it and release it himself?

Isn't that the American way? He ought to make it available for free downloading if it's that important.

[CatWoman]

4. who woulda thought that "catapulting the propaganda"

would have a price tag accompanied to it? :sarcasm:

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. They aired it

they should release it

He is right in the sense that it is to a point censorship, not stalist, rather corporte

Disney (and ABC) took a hit over this... and right now disney is voluntarily testing toys from China (to their credit, they should do that at point of origin)

but they are afraid of getting another hit

I will say it again, go ahead Disney Corp, RELEASE THIS.

I won't buy it, but the damage done has been done... and with the change in the country they don't expect it to sell much, but release it! The damage has been done and by not releasing it they are hoping you and I forget bout it. Hell I have not turned on ABC in over a year now, just like FOX... not even for entertainmnnt and I don't think we will go to disneyland... and partly it is the docucrapa, but release it

Now if they have the equivalent of Geraldo protested in the streets, yep I will stop by, that WAS histerical

[bbernardini]

5. Why should they release it if they aired it?

The simple fact that a show was aired is not enough justification to release it on DVD. (If it was, we'd have "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" and "Herman's Head" on DVD by now.) It's most likely a business decision. They know it was a bunch of crap and that nobody wants to buy it, so why waste the money releasing it? Same reason Lisa Welchel's (former "Facts of Life" cast member) Christian album wasn't released on CD (as far as I know).

[CatWoman]

7. I LOVED Inside Herman's Head

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. I suspect the only reason they won't

is becuase they can't cover the costs, but in this case they should becuse it is a political video

It would save them from the charges of CORPORATE fascism.

[AlCzervik]

9. "synchronize Swatches!" oh i loved that show!

[AlCzervik]

6. now was he standing up for Michael Moore when F911 was having trouble finding

a distributor?

[wilt the stilt]

10. Maybe they should release it

but perhaps ge should have read the fine print in the contract that gave away the rights.