PrintSeptember 5, 2007
DVD Release of 'Path to 9/11' in Political Limbo
If there was ever any doubt about the power wielded by the Clintonistas in this country, here's a story that should disabuse anyone of the notion that not even the biggest corporations can beat them once they put their minds to something:
Among the nearly two dozen television DVDs slated for nationwide release on Sept. 11 is the second season of "Bones," the third season of "Grey's Anatomy" and the miniseries "The Starter Wife" that aired earlier this year. Not on the list on that day or any other in the near future is last year's highly controversial "The Path to 9/11."Even more interesting than Nowrasteh's comments was the "no comment" made to the reporter when he called ABC to inquire about the reason the docudrama hasn't been released. All he was told was that ABC had "no plans to release" the DVD at this time.
The $40-million, five-hour ABC miniseries, which recently received seven Emmy nominations and drew a combined two-night audience of more than 25 million viewers, is for now on the path to nowhere. Its Amazon page reads: "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."
With no date for the release, questions are being raised about whether political pressure is behind its current status as a stalled or discarded DVD project. The reasons are murky, but the miniseries' writer, Cyrus Nowrasteh, believes it's crystal clear: Powerful forces are out to protect Bill Clinton's presidential legacy and shield Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) from any potential collateral damage in her bid for the White House.
Nowrasteh, also one of the miniseries' many producers, said he was told by a top executive at ABC Studios that "if Hillary weren't running for president, this wouldn't be a problem."
It is not commerce that is preventing the release of the DVD. There is a huge market that would very much like to see the release of PT9/11. Does ABC fear a legal challenge from the Clintonistas if they release it? It could very well be that Hillary and her gang are so intent on keeping this on the shelf until after the election that they would go so far as sue ABC, thus making the network gun shy about putting it on the market.
The amazing thing about this entire situation is that compared to the treatment meted out to George Bush and his Administration in the film, what criticism there was of the way Bill Clinton handled terrorism in general and Osama Bin Laden in particular was, to my mind, quite mild. But this is not really about what Clinton did or didn't do prior to 9/11 but rather keeping the left's narrative about what they say happened on that tragic day intact.
The left does not want us to remember planes flying into buildings and people jumping out of windows when we think of 9/11. They want the dominant image from that day to be George Bush sitting in a classroom reading a children's book. Any other reality that intrudes on that image must be suppressed.
The point about the docudrama isn't that Clinton was blamed but that George Bush wasn't blamed enough. Reason enough to force the release of this DVD so that the real history - the good and the bad - can be witnessed and absorbed by the American people.
