Who was blocking 'The Path to 9/11'?

By JEFFREY RESSNER

Over the past few years, perhaps no film controversy has inspired more outrage from conservatives than the Walt Disney Company’s handling of the ambitious 2006 miniseries “The Path to 9/11.” In the wake of Michael Moore’s 2004 anti-Bush documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” and the 2003 CBS biopic “The Reagans,” the Disney censorship fiasco has been a frequent bone of contention on right-wing blogs, AM talk radio and other media outlets. In addition to making cuts in its ABC-TV telefilm after complaints from political forces, the company also shelved plans for a subsequent DVD release.

The miniseries, a $40 million dramatization of events leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was set for its network debut when several members of President Bill Clinton’s administration, including former National Ssecurity Adviser Sandy Berger and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, insisted that several scenes were inaccurate or fictitious, and Clinton himself demanded the program be corrected or pulled. Five Democratic senators even sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger that appeared to threaten the company’s broadcast license over the issue. Edits were made, a disclaimer was added and the two-parter ran as originally scheduled, but there has never been a repeat showing and a DVD has never been released.

Now the imbroglio has been revived for a direct-to-video documentary called "Blocking 'The Path to 9/11'," produced by right-wing rabble-rouser David Bossie and directed by former radio host John Ziegler. On its surface, the new video is a fascinating piece of behind-the-scenes investigative work. But, like the original telefilm and its quashing by the Clinton camp, it is not without its own political intrigue. Indeed, "Blocking 'The Path to 9/11'" raises even more questions and adds its own set of disconnected dots to this broadcasting dilemma.

The new documentary, currently available for sale on its website, will soon be offered at other locations, with plans also calling for select theatrical screenings in Southern California to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks next month. Last week, the film’s worldwide premiere at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles drew a sold-out crowd that gave it a lengthy standing ovation.

Ziegler, who first raised questions about “Path’s” forced cuts and its cancelled DVD release on his radio show, is hopeful that his newest work will expose the machinations of Disney, Clinton and the Hollywood left.

“This is a conservative film, and that means there’s automatically two and a half strikes against it,” he said. Still, he believes his examination of the controversy should “hit a nerve” with others, and he’s still astounded Disney “decided to take a dive on their own movie” in order to placate the Clintons. According to Ziegler, Disney’s executives believed their liberal bona fides were so strong that they never suspected they’d be accused of a right-wing hit job and were “totally shocked” when Clinton’s camp complained. (Disney’s Iger has contributed to many Democrats running for office, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and has also donated to a handful of Republican candidates. Iger’s wife, former cable news anchor Willow Bay, is a top editorial executive at the decidedly leftist Huffington Post.)

Adding to the complexities: “The Path to 9/11” filmmakers' backgrounds provided plenty of fodder for critics. The director, David Cunningham, is the son of a controversial Christian missionary leader whose organization had shown an interest in media and movies. The screenwriter, Cyrus Nowrasteh, had friends and associates, including Rush Limbaugh, who hate Bill Clinton with a passion. (Both Cunningham and Nowrasteh insist “Path to 9/11” had no political tilt, explaining its chronological narrative meant the first section included Clinton’s faults in stopping Al Qaeda while the second part held the Bush administration up for scrutiny.)

“Blocking ‘The Path to 9/11’” presents strong evidence that many of the original docudrama’s harshest critics were also among its most ignorant. Ziegler smartly cuts together many of the Democrats — including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — admitting they had not seen the film that they were complaining about. “The Path to 9/11” was by no means a perfect docudrama, and the real-life figures certainly had a right to complain about their depiction and the way in which actual events were dramatized. But censorship is a dangerous thing, and “Blocking ‘The Path to 9/11’” is a look at behind-the-scenes power struggles in Hollywood that few people ever see.

One participant in the documentary has called Ziegler’s movie the Rosetta Stone to understanding how studio execs will bend over backward and even sacrifice potential shareholder profits in order to please, placate and protect friends such as the Clintons. Said the participant, who is weary of the argument that Hollywood only cares about making money and not furthering ideology: “It obliterates the canard that ‘it’s all about profits.’”

ODDS & ENDS:

Michelle Obama is returning to Los Angeles in early September for a fundraising double-header, according to the political website Wilshire & Washington. The first event on Sept. 3 will take place at the home of CAA partner Bryan Lourd and is being geared toward the gay and lesbian community, while a different affair later that evening will be held at the home of actor Samuel L. Jackson.

Jeffrey Barry of the William Morris Agency has been tapped to recruit country and western stars for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., next month. While few Hollywood watchers are expecting the GOP to draw the same number of celebrities as the Democratic convention next week, it’s expected a fair share of right-leaning performers, including Kid Rock, the Beach Boys, Gretchen Wilson, the Charlie Daniels Band and several others, will attend.

Website for the movie is here