Sept. 15, 2006 - 19:46 MDT

PIGS IS PIGS (Ellis Parker Butler)

The article quoted in full here makes a great point. By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts of the United Feature Syndicate in this morning's Rocky Mountain News:

"PATH TO 9/11" SHOWS FACTS VITAL IN QUEST FOR THE TRUTH

"Facts are not Republican and they're not Democrat. They're not ideological. Facts are facts."

"Those are the wise words of Lee Hamilton, vice-chairman of the 9/11 commission. They sound obvious, but the whole idea of an independent, verifiable reality, free of partisan or ideological bias is under serious attack today."

"Without a common set of facts, a common understanding of reality, democracy doesn't work."

"The immediate cause of Hamilton's comments was the recent miniseries on ABC, The Path To 9/11. It was cloaked in an aura of authenticity, but in fact it was a "docudrama," produced by the entertainment division of ABC, not the news division, and it got a lot of fact wrong. Just the word "docudrama" is inherently misleading."

"It's either a documentary or it's a drama, and to fudge it causes me a great deal of concern and suggests to me that news and entertainment are getting dangerously intertwined," says Hamilton. "And I do not think that's good for the country."

"There are many dangers here, starting with the element of deception. The show's producers originally claimed it was based on the report of the 9/11 commission. Tom Kean, the comission's chairman and an adviser to the project, said in July, "This is the story of how it happened." But the producers were show people, not news people. They felt free to make things up for dramatic effect. In the original version, Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser, hangs up on CIA Director George Tenet and blocks a raid against Osama bin Laden. The incident never happened."

"That was not in the report," conceded scriptwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh. "But you know when you're making a movie, a lot of things happen on set that are unscripted. Accidents occur, spontaneous reactions of actors performing a role take place." OK, fine, but then your work is not, "the story of how it happened." It's fiction, not fact."

"Clinton people like Berger were outraged, but our point here is not to defend that administration, which deserves a lot of blame for failing to disrupt the Sept. 11 plot. The very idea of a film that distorts history -- recent history that is still hotly debated -- deserves condemnation, no matter who is hurt or helped."

"ABC made several changes in the final version and added a disclaimer, saying for "dramatic and narrative reasons,"the movie contained fictionalized scenes, characters and dialogue." That's good, BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH."

"Viewers had no way of telling which parts were made up. Besides, pictures are so powerful on TV that they overwhelm any disclaimer. Compounding the confusion, the miniseries was interrupted on its second night by a speech from the real president."

"The problem goes far beyond one TV show. Increasingly, voters on both sides reject the idea that "facts are facts." They believe that all facts are colored by ideolgical and partisan interests, and they only want to hear things that reinforce their existing prejudices."

"But even if facts are not fashionable, they still matter. In fact, they matter more than ever. "As a nation, how can we solve our problems if we can't even agree on what those problems are ?"

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I gave up on TV a long time ago, those constant ?news? programs with the newsperson's frantic tone of voice trying to pump exictement into drab news fare -- that we had already heard about an hour before. And those programs which bring experts to the screen, former military folk or out-of-office politicians to give their slant on how they think the scoop is.

I did get caught by the West Virginia coal mine disaster a short time ago - - - what a news fiasco that one was.

I agree with Cokie and Steven, "docudrama" is a hoked up oxymoron of a thing and should not be aired as containing even an element of truth. Of course that is the thoughts of an old man, perhaps young folk wish to be taken in by the hype.

The reference title is about a story of a shipment of "guinea pigs" and the developments thereto. The thought came immediately to mind when I read Cokie and Stevens column and the thought rose in my mind PIGS IS PIGS . . . . . . . . . . . .

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