3/3/2008

10 Responses to “The Path To 9/11 – Disney Continues To Obfuscate”

1. Oh, yeah: “The Path to 9-11” was great. Classy movie, phenomenal performances.

   I can’t wait to see “The Path to the Bombing of the USS Cole“. I wonder why they didn’t make that one?

   Leviticus (35fbde) — 3/3/2008 @ 4:30 pm

   
   

2. Oops! Somebody’s toes got stepped on.

   Another Drew (f9dd2c) — 3/3/2008 @ 4:41 pm

   
   

3. Leviticus –

   The USS Cole incident was covered in the “Path to 9/11”. Are you sure you really saw it?…

   Justin Levine (20f2b5) — 3/3/2008 @ 5:00 pm

   
   

4. Of course, we all know how the libs cried “censorship” for the CBS miniseries “The Reagans,” but lo and behold you can buy a DVD of that if you want to: http://www.amazon.com/Reagans-Judy-Davis/dp/B0001US6CI/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1204593566&sr=1-6

   Not so “Path to 9/11.” Must be that it’s not “great”, “classy” or “phenomenal.” Yeah, right.

   MikeHu (4a6076) — 3/3/2008 @ 5:25 pm

   
   

5. It’s sort of an interesting contrast to “The Reagans,” which a network (CBS?) pulled after conservative pressure and dumped to DVD, which no one then much cared about. Here we have a show ABC did broadcast but isn’t releasing to DVD presumably because of liberal pressure. The difference points to the declining influence of broadcast TV and the increasing importance of DVDs, perhaps.

   Anyway, from a purely profit standpoint and setting aside issues of artistic freedom and the values of diversity of viewpoint, I would think a rational Disney shareholder should choose to forgo a few million in profits from a single DVD release to pissing off the political party that is probably going to be controlling legislation and regulatory power for the next few years. Nothing brave or admirable about that, but you can’t accuse the executives of acting in bad faith against shareholder financial interest if they decline to reissue a show that many Democrats consider a provocation, if Disney has a legislative agenda it would like to be enacted. Disney is about the bucks, not the truth about 9/11.

   Aplomb (d0fdfd) — 3/3/2008 @ 5:29 pm

   
   

6. Ha, MikeHu, funny we both thought about “The Reagans” and posted at the same time.

   Aplomb (d0fdfd) — 3/3/2008 @ 5:30 pm

   
   

7. “Well, that reminds me of when I was President of the Screen Actor’s Guild, and Henry Fonda came to me and, where was I?”

   Aplomb – You’ve got a point, but it’s just interesting to me that this movie is considered enough of an affront to them that it has to be kept on the shelf, lest any one in the DP leadership be affronted (hmm… there’s a parallel somewhere, just can’t think of it). I mean, Republicans/conservatives seem thick-skinned enough to deal with the constant anti-Bush, anti-Republican products that various Hollywood sources put out on a regular basis, and they aren’t demanding heads. I mean they may not like it, but they’re not forcing the providers to keep their products on the shelf. Michael Moore seems to be able to deliver his products quite well, in the face of complaints. I’m not surprised that Disney is this beholden to the “Party of Change.”

   MikeHu (4a6076) — 3/3/2008 @ 5:41 pm

   
   

8. I don’t know if any prominent Democrats are actually currently pressuring Disney to keep the DVD off the shelves. They certainly complained when the show was broadcast, but once it was I think the moment had passed and Disney could have released the DVD some time later without much notice — the controversy had been engaged and was played out by then. Disney is a very conservative (by which I mean not so much politically but adverse to controversy) company, and they might have just decided to move on after being unexpectedly caught in a politically charged atmosphere to concentrate on maintaining its image as a provider of friendly, noncontroversial entertainment.

   I’m not a big fan of Disney precisely because it tends toward banal, noncontroversial entertainment that aims squarely to the middle of the road. But you can’t deny it is very successful profiting from this approach, and that it isn’t too surprising that Disney’s executives would avoid pissing off either major political party if it doesn’t have to. Disney has had traditionally and still has a fairly aggressive legislative agenda involving copyright, media concentration, FCC, labor and artistic rights, and lots of other issues that depends on bipartisan goodwill to push through.

   It will be interesting to see what Disney says at the shareholder meeting in any case. I do wish they would release the DVD. I never saw it and suppose I wouldn’t agree with some things, but a lot of people say it was pretty good, so I’d rent it at least.

   Aplomb (d0fdfd) — 3/3/2008 @ 6:20 pm

   
   

9. The video linked to by Justin raises several interesting questions. The only problem I have is its slickness – was no one else thinking “Loose Change” the whole time?

   Don’t get me wrong – I’m a fan of Path to 9/11. Heck, I was furious because I couldn’t access the web-streamed video from here in China (no, not the Great Chinese Firewall, but the non-US restrictions of ABC’s- I ended up “acquiring” a Euro or Brit version off the ‘net).

   All that said, my original point stands – the questioning ad seems just a little too slick for me…

   Socrates Abroad (cf973f) — 3/4/2008 @ 4:22 am

   
   

10. Socrates –

    I honestly don’t understand your point, or what you mean by “slick”. There is no dispute about the fact that ABC/Disney spent over $40-million on the production. There is also no dispute that it is unheard of for such a large scale project to NOT be released on DVD within months of its airing. So its perfectly natural for people to simply ask “why?” and then consider the most obvious/likely explanations up front.

    Justin Levine (20f2b5) — 3/4/2008 @ 1:02 pm