Clinton Supporter Robert Iger: DGA Honors Exec Who Banished ‘Path to 9/11′ Miniseries
by Mark TapsonWant to relive season five of Paris Hilton’s reality show The Simple Life? No problem, it’s on DVD. The complete first season of Jane Curtin’s sitcom Kate & Allie? It’s just a click away on Amazon.com. Oliver Stone’s surreal 1993 miniseries Wild Palms? Get it on Netflix. Virtually any miniseries or TV show you can think of, from any season, no matter how insipid, forgettable, or obscure, is readily available and continues to earn profits (often inexplicably).
But you will look in vain for a DVD of the extraordinary and controversial Disney/ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11.
Disney President and CEO Robert Iger
A $30+ million project that aired without sponsors on two September nights in 2006, The Path to 9/11 dramatized the historical thread that connected the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Islamic attacks on American interests throughout the ‘90s, and the terrorism of that fateful morning in 2001.
Prior to its premiere, the producers at ABC were so proud of the impending project that they had high hopes of airing Path every 9/11 anniversary and showing it in schools across this country as an engaging educational tool – until an accusation of “conservative bias” (horrors!) on the part of the filmmakers quickly spun into liberal hysteria that the project was actually a “well-honed propaganda operation” on the part of a secretive, right-wing network-within-a-network.
(Honestly, how divorced from reality must one be to believe that a supposed stealth cabal of conservatives could conspire to get a $30+ million miniseries green-lit in Hollywood? That’s damn near impossible for liberals to achieve. The whole outrageous story is narrated in John Ziegler’s inimitable style in his riveting documentary Blocking the Path to 9/11.)
Clinton administration alumni, fearing the miniseries would highlight their flaccid response to the growing threat of Islamic extremism and tarnish their political legacy, pulled out all the stops to suppress it. The show very nearly wasn’t aired at all – Robert Iger and Disney were pressured by the Senate Democratic leadership, led by Harry Reid – it hasn’t aired since, and today you cannot even obtain it on DVD.
And why not? Disney President and CEO Robert Iger explains without elaboration that it’s a “business decision.” Oh, well then, case closed. Not only does he refuse to re-air The Path to 9/11 or release a DVD, but he has no intention of even selling the DVD rights to another company. I’m no financial wizard, but I can recognize that, as business decisions go, willfully taking a $30+ million bath on your product when there is a vast audience hungry for it and distributors making offers, is not one of the more lucrative marketing strategies I’ve ever heard of.
Tom Borelli, however, is not baffled by this business plan. Director of the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project and a Disney shareholder, Borelli knows that this has less to do with a “business decision” and more to do with an ABC television project that drove former President Bill Clinton to near-apoplexy in his infamous interview with Chris Wallace, and which by extension is perceived to be a threat to the political future of Mrs. Clinton. Borelli has pointed out that Iger has been a steady Clinton donor since before the former first lady was elected to the Senate, and has accused Iger of protecting Hillary’s presidential campaign at the expense of shareholders. (Path screenwriter/producer Cyrus Nowrasteh himself was told privately by an ABC executive that “If Hillary weren’t running for President, this wouldn’t be a problem.”)
Borelli has publicly pressured Iger at shareholders’ meetings and twice made formal offers to purchase the DVD rights, only to be ignored. He has become such a thorn in Iger’s side over this apparently touchy issue that, after Borelli finished a presentation at one shareholders’ meeting, the Disney chief responded to Borelli’s outstretched hand with an obscenity that would have set Mickey Mouse’s bow tie spinning. Borelli promptly returned to the podium and announced what had just happened, to the astonishment of the shareholders. A publicly cursing Disney head honcho more closely resembles a South Park parody than the squeaky-clean image Walt’s company has cultivated for many decades.
And how has this corporate self-sabotage and political favoritism affected Mr. Iger’s standing in the industry? Well, this Saturday night, the Directors Guild of America will honor him with their Honorary Life Member Award at the 62nd Annual DGA Awards. The Award is given “in recognition of outstanding creative achievement, leadership in the industry, contribution to the DGA or to the profession of directing.” Past recipients have included Walt Disney, Darryl F. Zanuck, Barry Diller, and Jack Valenti.
Tom Borelli
I can’t speak for how Mr. Iger has “contributed” to the DGA or to the profession of directing, but “leadership in the industry”? I would think that the most basic requirement of business leadership in the entertainment industry would be to ensure the highest possible profit for your company and its shareholders, not to suppress a product with significant market potential to protect your political friends. Above and beyond that, real leadership would be to stand behind one of the finest docudramas in television history, and to assert the primacy of free speech in the face of an hysterically politicized campaign for censorship. As Mr. Nowrasteh wrote in the Wall Street Journal:
Corporate timidity is preventing millions of Americans from finding The Path to 9/11 on DVD – though other politically controversial movies are readily available, such as Loose Change, which argues that the Bush administration targeted American citizens for death in an elaborate and sinister plot; or Michael Moore’s unabashedly biased Fahrenheit 9/11. These highly-charged movies, which don’t even offer a pretense of balance, and others can be found online or in retail outlets and DVD rental stores across the country.
And so they should be – just as The Path to 9/11 should be.
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67 Comments
Uncle Walt must be spinning in his grave. What a travesty!
A defining feature of the digital generation: the ubiquity of information. You cannot contain data by clenching your fist. If you won't sell an item, that's ok, it is probably already available, chopped up small enough to qualify as "fair use" snippets.
We still get to watch it, you just don't get the money for it.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=755BEC139...
So much for non-censorship, although liberals always have a spin ready. Still, the question I would ask vis-a-vis Disney is whether they have involvement with any Bush Derangement movies. In other words if Disney had involvement in distribution of say a Michael Moore "fakumentary" they wou;ld have less plausible deniability than if this was their only foray into politically charged film-making.
Well, that is just downright shocking. Shocking I say. I am shocked. Surprised by this. Surprised into near shock. It's amazing that liberals want to hide their complicity in 9/11. I would have expected them to be so willing to share. This is shocking and surprising and did I mention shocking? I'm shocked by this.
Not.
This guy makes 50 million dollars a year, so obiously that makes him much smarter than the rest of us dumb conservatives and libertarians. That's why he can understand how not selling something people want on DVD makes bucketloads of money. /eyeroll
There seems to be a trend in movie making right now. When a Producer/director sees the final product and it is even more powerful or controversial in another way than what they had envisioned, they do not distribute. There are so many good projects we will never get to see because they cannot get through the MSM PC filtering system. As a takeoff on "what if they had a war and nobody came", it is becomes, "what if they produced/directed a film and nobody distributed." Really strange to spend so much time and money on something just to let it sit on a shelf. The object of film IS to be seen.
Liberals always find a reason to give themselves trophies.
The more trophies you have, the more "effective" you are in Hollywood (or at least, that's how I think the game goes….but since I'm in fly-over country, maybe I'm wrong).
or in his cryo tube
either way, yeah
Liberals always find a reason to give themselves trophies.
The more "effective" you are, the more trophies you "win!" (at least I *think* that's how they play the game….but since I'm in fly-over country, I'm not sure).
Just another example of Progressive/Socialist rewrite (or revision as they like to call it) of History that makes the Progressive/Socialist the greatest thing since sliced bread (or the IPAD). This is the standard Howard Zinn approach to cherry picking and altering history. I am sure the DVDs will be released in a few years, after Obama reduced the U.S. to the ISSA (Islamic Socialist States of America), and then it will be spun to show Clinton, realizing the oppression of the Great Satin on the Ummah, bravely stood by and let the attacks happened.
.
It's always the left who is censoring and banning and burning books. They ARE fascists!
The news is entirely censored and filtered. Finally, people are waking up and crushing their ratings.
The astonishing thing isn't that liberals are acting like liberals, the astonishing thing is that there isn't a purloined copy making the rounds on the internet the way anything damaging to conservatives would have been thirty seconds after they wanted to keep it hidden.
How is this not censorship?
There have to be bootleg copies of that movie floating around somewhere. I'll have to start looking.
.I remember all the whining the Clintons did when this movie was about to be broadcast, then a quick blurb months later about how Disney wasn't planning to ever release the movie on DVD. I'm glad someone like Mr. Borelli is still keeping this story alive.
I won't be surprised if you see Mr. Iger awarded some cushy spot on Hillary's team the next time she runs for President .
This doesn't surprise me at all. Try finding a copy of the the 1968 TV movie "Shadow on the Land" or the 1987 mini series "Amerika," both of which originally aired on ABC.
I know I'll probably get myself in trouble for even mentioning this, but it's a shame that there isn't a file sharing service "out there" to make this available.
It seems funny that you can get a bootleg of almost any major motion picture (including Disney/Pixar films) just days after it's release, or sometimes even before it's shown in theaters , but you can't get a copy of this – even legally?
But I guess in a weird way that makes sense.
After all, "The Path to 9/11" is evil propaganda we must be protected against.
Those other films just make money…
Made me laugh. Very funny.
Thanks! I never got the chance to see this remarkable documentary and I thank you for posting the link on YouTube! I will pass it along to all my friends. As Americans, it is our duty to never forget and remind those who deny reality and wish to repeat history at our great peril.
No kidding! It's like watching the trophies being handed out to participants for showing up to a Special Olympics events.
If I´m not mistaken, the whole movie or large parts of it can be seen on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zam4EWvU_Hs
I guess that´s something but no reason to let them off the hook.
Check the second comment above.
Liberals only support free speech that they agree with, which is why they squeal like stuck pigs when corporations ae allowed the same rights to speech as labor unions, and why, when they ignorantly made a movie that told the truth about 9/11, they hold it behind their backs and say, "Movie? What movie?"
And while I understand the sentiment behind the file-sharing and Youtubing and bootlegging ideas, it is so unfair to the artists who created this film, to be cut off from its revenue stream because of the ideology of a petty tyrant like Iger.
Brilliantly stated, Mr. Tapson.
My husband and I are sitting on a potential goldmine. We had the foresight to tape the entire mini-series and have locked it away in a vault. We've been able to watch it two more times since its broadcast date.
So telling the truth has now officially been cornered by a vast group of Hollywood right wing conspirators?.
Thanks, Mr Wrestling!
The moral rot in this nation is astounding.
You should transfer it to DVD and sell copies of it on e-bay. I'd buy one.
Dear Mr. Mark Tapson: Please upload a copy of the film to MOVSHARE.NET movshare dot net you can do this anonymously so that we all can see it, and movshare will share it with every other upload service. It sill spread on the underground like wildfire.
Put it on MOVSHARE.net
http://www.movshare.net/panel.php?rr=
Initially, I had not intended on watching the mini-series, but when the Clintonistas whined about it so much, I knew it had to be something worth watching.
I did watch it, and thought it was great. I still remember vividly the scene where the Northern Alliance had bin Laden in their crosshairs, and the rug was pulled out from under them at the last second.
I think Iger is just a big fat coward.
I wouldn't necessarily call in censorship, but more like self-censorship.
[...] Clinton Supporter Robert Iger: DGA Honors Exec Who Banished ‘Path to 9/11′ Miniseries [...]
Once again, the Internet trumps the mainstream.
I would like to nominate Mr. Iger for the 2010 Walter Duranty award …
You should directly contact Breitbart or the reporter/writer of this story immediately. GOLD MINE, YES!! GO FOR IT!!!
I want to see it as do thousands if not millions!
Corporate America burying the truth – I wonder will Obama be fighting to let the truth out or will he continue to be a hippocrite? (sic. Recent Supreme Court Case overturning Mccain Feingold)
Disney stickholders need to fire this clown.
I watched both nights (didn't have the foresight to tape it) and it was very good. It's mind-boggling to think that this defining event and precursor to it is suppressed by politicians and Hollywoodites. I'm surprised Disney shareholders haven't put forth a strong campaign to have this mini-series released. Unrelentingly embarrass the hell out of Iger.
Also, I don't recall it blaming everything on Clinton. If anything, the problems were systemic. It reminds me of Fort Hood, where so many knew there were problems but the atmosphere that's been created makes it difficult for someone to boldly step forward and take definitive action.
There may have been opportunities but let's face it, assassinating bin Laden prior to 9/11would have been a bold move and sure to bring scorn from many around the world (not that I care).
Bill Clinton could have been a great president if he didn't epitomize everything that's wrong with a politician. If he stepped forward and said he'd like this movie released, it would be a sign that he's a patriotic American. As it stands, the USA comes in a distant 2nd behind Bill Clinton.
especially at thepiratebay.org (com?) where a surprisingly large amount of material seems to be available, or so I'm led to believe.
Zinn died yesterday. Don't all cry at once.
You mean nobody owned a VCR machine in 2006? Or knows how to digitalize it into mpeg2 and put it on bit torrent sites? Wow!
I'm not surprised about a 1968 movie, since you can't even find Tonight Show films from that era (they got wiped and re-used, or discarded to make room in the warehouse, by the far-sighted people in the entertainment industry). The 1987 film may be floating around though – lots of people had VCRs then.
You can do that as long as you realize the consequences. While what ABC is doing is a form of censorship, it is not illegal. They are the copyright holders and as such they have the right to decide how the copyright will be used. If they have gone to these lengths to keep it out of the public view, it wouldn't surprise me if this is something they monitor the share sites for.
Like the climate e-mail leaker and other whistle-blowers, I think that you would be doing a great service to get this out there for people to see. Just be aware of the civil and criminal repercussions before you do it.
Not to mention Sandy Berger stealing and destroying notes from Clinton meetings on terrorism. That was another MSM non-story. Somehow it was a "poor choice" by Berger instead of an assault and theft of the Nation's historical record. When they can't censor, they disappear the offending person or document; just like Stalin–only difference is they only kill the media existence. Don't any of them have any sense of right and wrong? Can't they see what they are?
Leftists are the most obnoxious and hypocritical bunch on the earth. They say they want freedom and that nothing should be censored. Only if it fits their agenda of course.
What if they just copied it to DVD as back up – then lent it to a few thousand of their friends?
I bought it last year on-line from Canada. Not that difficult
I bought it last year on-line from Canada. Not that difficult
I, Miss Quinn, as a friend of Navy Mom, accept whatever she's gonna lend me, up to and including "The Path to 9/11". :p
*MissQuinn*
I saw Blocking the Path to 9/11 and it was eye-opening to say the least. I also find it insane that Disney would not pursue the potential profits from releasing this on DVD when they are having layoffs….
Please report to my office.
Eric Holder
Surely there are some pirate copies out there. I don't normaly by pirates or bootlegs, but I would have no moral qualms about obtaining this one.
Well, this is where Bittorrent really comes in handy.
……
They can't very well sue us for making them lose money…..
Umm…Madeleine Albright would sue and make a fortune, so what would be the point? I realize this "movie" is the summit of Right Wing Hollywood's achievements, but maybe you guys can find some other way to exploit stupid rubes without committing slander.
It's "controversial" because the remarks attempting to lay the blame for 9/11 at Madeleine Albright's feet are a mendacious calumny for which she would be richly rewarded in court, whereupon the judge would probably issue an injunction against disseminating the slander anyway.
Why not get cracking on a script about Ashcroft screaming he didn't want to hear about Al-Qaeda or Bush telling the officer who presented the "Bin Laden Set To Use Planes" memo that he had "covered his ass?" These are documented events, that actually happened and I would pay to see them reenacted, and the bonus is, no fear of lawsuit.
Iger is a collaborator to the left's lies. These people will bend the truth to gain advantage or purge any record of their guilt. Disgusting, and these animals wonder why the American people hate the media.
Oh, still hanging around from the James O'Keefe non-story troll-a-thon?
There are bit torrents of the miniseries listed – I've done a search and found a bunch (or at least they purport to have copies…I haven't downloaded any of them)
The series has already aired, so if she were going to sue she would have already done so. Also, if she files a lawsuit SHE will have to testify under oath. Civil suits are different from criminal trials in that you cannot invoke the right to remain silent. Guess we know why she hasn't sued.
The miniseries has already aired, so if she were going to sue she would have already done so. Also, if she files a lawsuit SHE will have to testify under oath. Civil suits are different from criminal trials in that you cannot invoke the right to remain silent. Guess we know why she hasn't sued.
Cry??? Heck no, I am having a Party!!!!! Whoo-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
You hit the nail on the head and that's why there will never be any criminal trials of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. The vile traitors like Holder would have to bring forward their buddies to testify and that they can't do beginning with CIA agents like Valerie Plame and her boy toy husband and the rest of the transies at State and Justice.
Interesting that Disney's being short on cash is to blame for their "killing" Miramax. This has caused them to be labeled as solely responsible for the silencing of countless free -thinking, eyeopening directors like Quinten Tarintino and Kevin Smith. < http://gawker.com/5458719/the-day-the-indies-died... >
Do you think that Miramax's audience that bemoans Disney's actions with Miramax will champion the release of "Path to 9/11" to scratch up some cash for Disney?
If you know how to torrent…. http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/93178601/path+...
and http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/120127105/path...
Enjoy!
When it was screened here in Australia it was a couple of minutes longer than the US screening as the Clintons got some bits edited out before it went to air but here that didn't apply and it was aired in original form. I did record it and will have to have a search through my DVD pile to see if I still have it.
Sorry, as part of the copyright holder's "bundle of rights" is the right of distribution. Absent exceptions for for 'fair use' the holder gets to determine when or how the copyrighted material is distributed.
Under fair use you can make a personal recording and that can extend to a new copy on DVD for archive purposes. But the lending would technically be illegal. That said, the odds are very slim that your lending would attract the attention of the lawyers. However, if you started making and distributing DVD's, even for free, that would be more likely to be noticed and you could be charged with a copyright violation.
Again, I'm not saying 'don't do it'. Just understand what you are doing and what the consequences might be.
My husband and I watched the series when it first aired. We were also watching with great interest the Clinton demands for pulling certain scenes or re-shoots of certain scenes. At air time I think some editing had been done but not much. We came away with the distinct impression the Clinton Administration was derelict. But then, WHEN weren't they?
WHEN will we be able to be certain any president we elect will have this country's best interest at heart and not their own?
President George W. Bush did a fine job in my opinion ( I know that is controversial even with conservatives) but he did what was needed and he did that well, all cirticism aside. Clinton and Mrs. Clinton and their minions do not nor have they ever thought of anything but their own political skins and futures. Obama seems even more so. We need to vet our people very carefully from now on and we need to educate ourselves on just who these people are before we allow them to take this most important office. Same for congresscritters and the senate. If you are a progressive, get out.
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