ABC, Lies, and Videotape

One extraordinarily successful right-wing meme is the myth of the liberal media. Given that most of the media is controlled by rich corporations with loyalty only to their bottom lines, this is an implausible idea on the face of it, but constant repetition has made many people believe it. What is undoubtedly true is that television, at least, has a sensationalist and anti-religious bias, stemming from their experience that sex sells and religion doesn't. Confounding this with a political bias is confused though, especially since the one network with a clear political bias (Fox) is both conservative politically and hyperaggressive in pushing the boundaries of taste in its entertainment division.

ABC is a big, slightly flabby, corporation with no really obvious political bias except for way too many conservative hacks on Sunday mornings, so how did they wind up pushing a Republican political hit job like "The Path to 9/11?"

My guess is that stupidity was the main operational principle here. A right-wing writer and director sell a project with obvious draw for the 9/11 anniversary. The sales job is slick and persuasive, and nobody in ABC's corporate entertainment division bothers to read the script and fact check it. Hey, what the heck do they care, it's entertainment right? If they miss a few details, isn't like that getting the color of Napoleon's hair wrong or something? What they forgot was that their entertainment purported to be a history of the central national political event of our time.

Those who were libelled and still alive were outraged. Many of the libelled dead still had friends willing to speak up. And anyone with a brain realized that it was important to get the facts right on this particular story.

I hope ABC will see the light and pull this piece of junk, or at least dump the major lies in it. If they don't, I predict they will pay, where they care, in their wallets.

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