From the New York Times review of Path to 9/11:

The Sept. 11 commission concluded that the sex scandal distracted the Clinton administration from the terrorist threat.

What the 9/11 Commission actually says (pg. 118):

Everyone involved in the decision had, of course, been aware of President Clinton’s problems. He told them to ignore them. Berger recalled the President saying to him “that they are going to get crap either way, so they should do the right thing.” All his aides testified to us that they based their advice solely on national security considerations. We have found no reason to question their statements.

This is what happens when people learn about the 9/11 Commission by watching Path to 9/11.

Digg it!

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.

Senator George J. Mitchell
T: (212) 335-4600
T: (212) 335-4500
F: (212) 335-4605
george.mitchell@dlapiper.com

(Remember to be polite, and please copy us at tellabc@americanprogressaction.org so we can keep track your comments.)

ABC is feeling the pressure. Let’s keep it up.

Today on MSNBC, right-wing commentator Frank Gaffney cited a made-up scene in The Path To 9/11, in which former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger allegedly refuses to give an order to the CIA to take out bin Laden. 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean was forced to acknowledge the scene was fictionalized and the writer of the film, Cyrus Nowrasteh, said it was “improvised.”

Gaffney said, “I don’t know the facts here.” Nonetheless, he continued, “To the extent there is basis for this kind of reporting, I think it suggests a risk-averse attitude that was characteristic of the Clinton administration.” Watch it.

Gaffney’s comments underscore why ABC must correct its false scenes in the movie. If it fails to do so, the scenes will be cited as evidence by Gaffney and others, slowly transforming from myth into reality.

Full transcript: Read more

ThinkProgress has obtained a statement released just now by ABC Television about its planned docudrama “The Path to 9/11.” The release says the “editing process is not yet complete, so criticisms of film specifics are premature and irresponsible.”

Statement from ABC Entertainment on The Path to 9/11

“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. No one has seen the final version of the film, because the editing process is not yet complete, so criticisms of film specifics are premature and irresponsible. The attacks of 9/11 were a pivotal moment in our history, and it is fitting that the debate about the events related to the attacks continue. However, we hope viewers will watch the entire broadcast of the finished film before forming an opinion about it.”