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September 7, 2006
Why Would ABC Need to Put a Disclaimer on What They Once Called a Documentary?
If you paid $40 million for a five hour show and then you found out its was full of errors and misrepresentations, what would you do?
Well that is where ABC finds itself with their "docudrama" on 9/11. And that is why they are promoting the following disclaimer.
The following movie is a dramatization that is drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 Commission Report and other published material and from personal interviews. The movie is not a documentary. For dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, and time compression. [emphasis added]
I understand that the show will carry the disclaimer with each of the two episodes. It would be nice if they told us exactly which scenes are fictional. Lacking that knowledge, anyone who watches this should assume that they all are.
Even their "sources" should be viewed with suspicion. The 9/11 Commission Report has considerable authority. When and where did they use it? Viewers need to know this so they can judge the validity of the "other published material" and "personal interviews." All kinds of nonsense have been published and said about 9/11. Unless I am mistaken, the movie will give no guidance as to what is fact and what is nonsense. Without such guidance, anything that has not been in legitimate news outlets before should be considered nonsense.
However, here is the real problem and why ABC should suck up the $40 million and cancel the movie, just as CBS pulled a show on Reagan that many found biased. There will be those who believe the lies. As Mark Twain said in a June 16, 1867 letter to the San Francisco Alta California,
The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a man only tells them with all his might.
Posted by Duane Smith at September 7, 2006 6:59 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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