From Think Progress:
Over 50,000 ThinkProgress readers have written ABC in the last 48 hours about “The Path to 9/11.” We’re going to keep the pressure on ABC, but we’re also broadening our focus today to the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC.
Disney’s Chairman of the Board is former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-ME). Senator Mitchell has a long and distinguished career both inside and outside government and he knows how important it is to accurately represent historical events.
We need to remind him that 9/11 was a national tragedy, and that politicizing and flagrantly misrepresenting the facts about 9/11 is wrong.
Progress?
Or suppression? I repeat. Who is actually calling for suppression? Who is calling for government censorship with the full might of the Federal government behind it?
Oh, I found what you asked for:
“When CBS announced in November, 2003 that it would broadcast a mini-series it produced about Ronald and Nancy Reagan called “The Reagans,” Matt Drudge obtained excerpts from the script and published them. That led to right-wing bloggers, organizations and pundits, along with the RNC itself, demanding that CBS cancel the broadcast, which it did (moving it instead to Showtime, with a panel discussion afterwards filled with critics of the film).”
So, as I said. Both side did it.
Don’t try to cast the left-wing as worse than the right-wing.
Both side has hysterical morons.
So I can ask the same:
Who is actually calling for suppression? Who is calling for government censorship with the full might of the Federal government behind it?
And give the answer:
People, regardless of political orientation.
Oh, and the link:
Bush supporters condemn fictionalized political mini-series — in 2003
Well that’s a credible source…the World’s Dumbest Sockpuppet Master.
There’s also a difference. There were scenes in the Reagan movie that wre made up out of whole cloth. IOW: nothing even remotely like it happened. And, it did get shown on Showtime.
In this case the Vast Left Wing Censorship Machine might have a point. It is inaccurate to show the Clintonistas failing ot nab bin Laden that one time when the truth is that teh Clintonistas failed to get bin Laden numerous times.
Oh, I see.
It is hard to argue, if your only answer is “that was not written by my friend, so it must be a lie”.
I see.
Great reasoning.
For the rest: I guess you have seen 9/11 and of course you were present at the actual events, so you know that all of it is true.
According to ABC noone has seen the movie, as editing is not finished yet.
Now either ABC lies, or you… erm.. have not seen the series yet?
Neither is good.
Roland,
Glen Greenwald is a serious political hack. Take his writings with a grain of salt.
Also, compare the outcome of the hissy fit over ‘Reagan’. CBS showed it anyway (on Showtime) followed by a panel to discuss the merits of the film.
With ‘Path’, the Democratic party is threatening ABC’s broadcast liscense….that’s in a whole different league. That isn’t a threat against one program, it’s a threat against the whole station.
No one threatened Disney whent Farenheit 911 went out. Not like this. Moore hawked that piece of filth as a documentary. ABC is NOT pushing their piece as a documentary.
Pure hypocracy and blatant censorship.
“ABC is NOT pushing their piece as a documentary.”
Dunno.. All I read it was first “base on actual documents” now it is “based partly on actual documents”
And I do agree that the Fahrenheit was/is a piece of crap.
“Also, compare the outcome of the hissy fit over ‘Reagan’”
Gaius, if you read my comments, my whole points was that there was a call to cancel – you said the right never did that.
I just pointed out that they did.
It’s not about the outcome. The license thing is – you can read it as a threat. Of course. You can read everything as a thread if you want.
It’s just it is too evident that you try to depict the right as the champion of justice vs. the democrats, the servants of devil, so to say – maybe not intentionally. It just come through like that.
And I don’t say that I agree with the way they handle this stuff.
Roland, I thought the brouhaha over the Reagan flick was stupid, but there is no comparison between the two productions. The folks steamed about the Reagan biopic were yelling about boycotting sponsors if their wishes were not honored; CBS shuttled it over to Showtime, where the advertiser boycott threat didn’t come into play and the film was able to be shown.
Now we have bunch of Democrat Senate leaders who, come November, may be (or will be, depending on what polling you believe) heading various committees and wielding serious political muscle telling ABC to kill the project outright, or they are going to be looking at whether ABC’s broadcast license requirements meets their personal, partisan criteria. It’s an outright threat to possibly shut the whole network down if it does not do their bidding, and for what? Showing the Clinton administration in a less than glorious light?
That is scary stuff; something that will frighten every media organization in the nation into wondering if anything remotely “political” is worth producing. Which means nothing in any way provocative will get produced if there is the slimmest chance it will piss off someone wielding political power on Capitol Hill.
It makes the censorship hit the First Amendment took when McCain-Feingold was passed look penny ante in comparison
Well, I am not absolutely familiar with legal procedings in the USA, but I think that taking back the license of ABC is a bit more difficult, than just jumping in and saying – no more license.
On the other thread.
It was explicitly stated that nothing that resembles a call for cancell has ever been uttered by the right.
You can say now that, oh, yes, after thinking a while there was, but it was not that serious, but it still proves that one statement false.
And it was that statement I wanted to prove false.
I will accept that the one over the Reagan was a just case, and absolutely justified, and not as serious than this one.
I just wanted to point out that there was one, contrary to a statement.
Nothing more. Not colours, flavours, only the existence of the event.
That’s all.
Roland,
Your ‘ice cream’ analogy is based on a flawed premise: you do not have the power to provide production license/copyright protection to the ice cream maker.
For your analogy to be more accurate, substitute ‘your blog’ with ‘senior representatives of one of the two major political parties’ in your state. States have the sanction to use force. This drastically changes the implications of communication.
For the State (in this case, these Senators) to mention the FCC license in an official communication to ABC constitutes an implied threat; certainly without immediate clarification from this group of Senators, that door is still open. If I were in charge at ABC, I would demand an immediate, and public, clarification on this issue. This is a free speech issue.
Roland, I’m not sure if your Fahrenheit 911 comment is a snark or what. My point is that I don’t recall any government agency threatening adverse action which would constitute censorship (or the threat thereof) against the distributors of that movie. There was certainly a lot of blog traffic, but blogs don’t have the constitutional responsibilities of the government.
Roland said: “Well, I am not absolutely familiar with legal procedings in the USA, but I think that taking back the license of ABC is a bit more difficult, than just jumping in and saying – no more license.”
I agree completely, which is why I asked the question of how they think they could pull this off. I think the Senators’ letter was a rather short sighted emotional response that implies a threat they cannot carry out.
Making such a blatant, but empty, threat is really very, very stupid. This could very well hurt the Democrats this November.
The point is they don’t have to actually pull the license; probably couldn’t by any sane reading of applicable law. But they can make life miserable for the suits at ABC and Disney by hauling them up to the Hill for “hearings” like what happened to Major League Baseball during the steroids uproar. And the nutroots would be demanding they do all sorts of this stuff (like bring back “the Fairness Doctrine” to muzzle right wing talk radio) if they return to majority status come the fall.
“Your ‘ice cream’ analogy is based on a flawed premise: you do not have the power to provide production license/copyright protection to the ice cream maker.”
It was implicitely assumed, that as Health Minister of my country, i can ban products from shelves
“Roland, I’m not sure if your Fahrenheit 911 comment is a snark or what.”
No, I honestly don’t like the movie based on what I saw and read of it.
I don’t like political propagand movies, no matter which side.
Had to watch a bit too many of that for my liking in the past.
Roland? You really have no idea how America works, do you?
Washington DC, in no way acceptable to the public at large, represents or mirrors the Brussels/EU model you seem to be using as a template for your conclusions. Our “Health Minister” is called “Surgeon General.” I dare many a Yank to name the (purely political) crank currently seated at that rank.
If it did resemble the Brussels/EU model, you wouldn’t have the chips that run your computer (environmental concerns in the production), or the software that runs on top (see: endless lawsuits against Microsoft).
The whole point of America–at least as far as what I’ve been taught while growing up–is that if you leave the people alone, they will deliver gold. Whenever some bureucratic ass gets involved he just gums up the works and makes everyone hurt.
That is what the threat these Dem “leaders” have thrown on the table devolves to: “Mess with us and we will screw you up.”
Roland? You really have no idea how America works, do you?
Uhm.. You really have no idea what I’ve been refering to, and where and how I live, do you?
“the Brussels/EU model you seem to be using as a template for your conclusions”
Seems to be? Strange. I don’t use Brussels/EU models.
Couldn’t if you threaten to shoot me.
“The whole point of America–at least as far as what I’ve been taught while growing up–is that if you leave the people alone, they will deliver gold.”
So is the point of Sweden – and they accomplish it with a bigger percent than in the US
– and a lot of other countries.
Now the whole point was not the “Health Minister” or whatever.
The point in the “Health Minister” was the following:
Blackhawk wrote: “you do not have the power to provide production license/copyright protection to the ice cream maker.”
And I wrote: “assumed, that as Health Minister of my country, i can ban products from shelves ”
You know. Assume that I have the power to provide…
For the sake of the example.
You know. Like a lets pretend.
Or something like that. If you read the comments in the proper order, you will see the picture
What the bloody hell does Sweden deliver, cheap cell phone hnandsets?
Get real, Canuck.
“What the bloody hell does Sweden deliver, cheap cell phone hnandsets?”
Laugh in bleeding loud.
And the US? Most of the products come from China, Taiwan and Japan.
Have not seen a useful US product for ages
Even the Chevrolet is made in Korea
– especially since Chevrolet is Daewoo .
But it is typicall. You take one – in fact irrelevant piece – and starts to scream about that.
But if you ask: what Sweden deliver is the absence of a starving, impoversihed, illiterate population like the one in the US.
“The whole point of America–at least as far as what I’ve been taught while growing up–is that if you leave the people alone, they will deliver gold.”
Except they don’t. A lot of people has been taught that communism is the salvation. Being taught something does not make the subject a reality
Roland: “Have not seen a useful US product for ages
”
Oh yeah? What frickin’ OS is your computer using? Who built your browser, email, anything that got you here?
Be real, skippy. Manufacture is just factory; product is prescience. And we taught everyone how to build the tools that pump out the stuff that the US dreams up.
I mean, let’s get real: the “International Space Station” belong to the US and Russia. No other country has yet figured out how to haul their astros asses up there without killing the poor SOBs.
And WTF is “Laugh in bleeding loud.”?
You really don’t wanna play this game with me, skippy. I eat your likes for lunch.
“Oh yeah? What frickin’ OS is your computer using? Who built your browser, email, anything that got you here?”
Uhm.. A european linux ?
“And we taught everyone how to build the tools that pump out the stuff that the US dreams up. ”
lol… the arrogance
Taught tools that was dreamt up by european scientest who moved to the US for a while or longer time?
On a machine that is based on a european man’s theory?
Get real. It is a complex world. It was not made by US.
More like made in China, but in fact it was made by all.
You eat me for lunch?
Learn reasoning first :p
< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
Here's reasoning: The American Machine saved Europe's ***, at the least, three times. When our government didn;t, when it comes down to it, give a flip, We turned out industrial might into building tank. Your crew? To this day you EU backers are scared witless that the US pulls all our bases off that front and says "do it yourselves."< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> < !DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
Oh, yeah, "Slashot" wannabe"…. There is NO SUCH THING as a "euro" Linux. Maybe some local builds, but homegrown? No, no, NO. It all started at IB–M.
(Edit – watch the language)
ROFL.
Yeah, I give up.
)))))
You invented the fire, the light, the air