John Aravosis, an activist who knows a thing or two about organizing and punishing major corporations, posted this PT 9/11 image from Australia's TV 7 on his site a few days ago, remarking: "My inner lawyer is just relishing the lawsuits that Disney/ABC and every TV network around the world are going to face come Monday morning. As the other stories now prove, Disney/ABC knew OVER ONE YEAR AGO that their show was riddled with inaccuracies, they refused to fix it, and then they ran ads claiming the show was 'exactly what happened'. That is a
prima facie case for libel, even against a public figure."
Looks like ABC/Disney got the message, albeit one day late. Check out the change: Same image, same lead, but a change in copy that states clearly we're going to be watching something very different from "the official story of exactly what happened" on 9/11. Yes. Sometime in the last 24 hours, the Australian TV 7 version of The Path to 9/11 changed from "The story of exactly what happened" into a "thrilling dramatised investigation". Gone is the claim to absolute authenticity, emphatically and unambiguously stated in the original copy. In the revised version the door to further debate, slammed shut in the original version, is now once more agape, jarringly so; positively inviting additional inquiry and speculation. It's as if some mysterious gremlin visited in the middle of the night to change the copy and the tone of the promo, some mischevious imp who, without telling anyone, leaves a little note, a little friendly misdirection: "See, just foolin'. No reason to get excited. Certainly no reason to talk about lawsuits. Heh-heh. We're just telling a story here folks." And that smaller font? It's like ABC/Disney TV 7 doesn't want folks to look too closely at the radical and substantial changes made one broadcast to the next.
What could have happened to prompt the change?
Here's Aravosis again:
The first half of Disney/ABC's "Path to 9/11" apparently just ran there and it, reportedly, still includes the defamatory and totally fictitious scene about Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger refusing to let the CIA grab bin Laden. Also, reportedly, the defamatory scene about Madeleine Albright was aired as well.
I want to be Sandy Berger's love child cuz pretty soon daddy's gonna own ABC and half of New Zealand.
Any chance ABC/Disney panicked? Did they bust out the industrial-size pampers, get on a secure phone, upload fresh copy directly from the states or simply scream: "Pull that page! NOW!!".
Clearly, marketing PT 9/11 as "the official true story of exactly what happened" is exactly what ABC/Disney doesn't need at exactly the same time scumbag screen-writer/producer Cyrus Nowrasteh and company are claiming the film makes no claims to authenticity, but is rather a "dramatization" featuring "composites".
Who knows whether TV 7 took the action alone or on direction from the producers, ABC/Disney or even the rightwing Clinton haters who are the true authors of this libelous piece of crap. We can see for ourselves clearly that the copy has been radically revised in a way that can only be seen as a pre-emptive defensive measure to protect ABC/Disney from legal action.
Will ABC/Disney make their story stick?
The answer may lie in Hunter's aptly titled, Disney is Like a Box of Stupid. Because ABC/Disney or the TV 7 folks, or whoever so desparately is trying to avoid a lawsuit seem to have fucked-up the scrub. Surprised? That's right. Despite removing the damning copy from the front page of the site, the link to the promo video is intact. That's right. Click and you get an even more emphatic claim to authenticity than the one that was supposed to be scrubbed:
"For the first time..the story of exactly what happened". And as a BONUS: the same defamatory, libelous promo ABC/Disney is trying so hard to convince Americans doesn't exist loads right up. It was likely easy enough to change the still, but re-editing the promo video was simply too difficult to accomplish in so short a period of time. So they've left themselves wide open all the same. You can (can't any longer) go to TV 7 but can still see it here in Stop George's excellent diary; or simply read the same "cheesy script", as PP called it. For all ABC/Disney's desparate efforts to conceal their true agenda, the flap is wide open. ABC/Disney's outrageous claims that Path to 9/11 is the "true", "official" story of 9/11 are out there for all to see. Right now.
Screen credits:
The Official Story
Audio:
We predict a black day for America...
(Voice Over) The Official True story....
They're planning something... terrorism beyond comprehension....
(Voice Over) They could have wiped Bin Laden out, they didn't. But why?
Keitel: There's Bin Laden. He's right there...
(Voice Over) How one decision changed our world..
Patricia: Can't we take him out?
Berger character: I don't have that authority.
Same libelous introduction, same crazed voice overs. Up there for all the world to see.
What a bunch of wankers!
(UPDATE: 9/16/06: TV 7 has let their promo disappear. View the original at Stop George's diary...Hat-tip: existenz, for reminding me of Cyrus Nowrasteh's level of culpability and dc 20005 for placing TV 7 in Australia, NOT New Zealand. Many thanks)