Path to 9/11 Propaganda

ABC issued a statement about the controversy surrounding the "Path to 9/11" in which they said:

“The Path to 9/11″ is not a documentary of the events leading to 9/11. It is a dramatization, drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 Commission Report, other published materials, and personal interviews. As such, for dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, and time compression.

Fictionalized dramas about historical events - docudramas, an insipid compound bastardization - are always problematic. Our view of reality is colored only by our perceptions, and filling that perceived reality with fiction only serves to subvert the fundamental democratic process. Even when the network airing the fiction explicitly says that it is not historical truth, if the production itself has the demeanor of a historical work people's perceptions will still be shaped by that fiction. At least, in this case, ABC appeared to have covered its ass from the harshest counter-attacks by issuing statements like the above.

Except, watch the first 10 seconds of this promotional trailer carefully:



There it is, bright and bold, with the screen all to itself: "Official True Story." Of course, that's the European trailer - they wouldn't be so bold as to tell the unvarnished truth about their intentions in America-proper.

So which is it, ABC? A fictionalized drama, or the "Official True Story?" I ask because "Official True Story" sounds like it would be a "documentary" to me, or at least, you know, not include fiction. Maybe I have a strange definition of the word "True."

Wow. It's just a remarkably liberal media we have, huh?