UPDATE: I think the anger I felt last night over some of yesterday’s developments has subsided. Plus, the comments to this diary have been enlightening. I particularly like the idea of an equal time broadcast. However, I think at a minimum, the phrased “based on the 9/11 comission report” needs to be pulled from the ads. Additionally some of the really bad factual errors should be corrected as well. I have slightly modified the diary to reflect this.
For those of you who’ve been living in a cave, ABC is going to run a mini-series blaming 9/11 on Clinton and papering over Bush mistakes. There are serious factual errors in the movie, in fact so many errors that former Bush counterterrorism official Roger Cressey called it “something out of fantasyland”. This movie should never have been green-lighted and should never see the light of day. For more information on the movie, see Matt Stoller’s Open Letter to ABC.
So, what does this all have to do with California? Plenty. Namely most of the Disney officials are here and we have a tremendous power over these companies. What can we do about it? What should we do? Or more aptly, what MUST we do?
We need to show ABC that we are serious about this crap not seeing the light of day. Marshall Collins a Colorado blogger said this in a comment at Open Letter to ABC:
It is time Democrats stop screwing around with form letters and really go after this tooth and nail.
Here is one idea that Democrats should do to show they are taking the gloves off with this mockumentary.
Every Democratic candidate contact their local ABC affiliate and tell them that they won’t spend a dime in advertising on their station if this Republican propaganda is played. (Open Letter Comments 9/6/06)
A great idea. An especially great idea in California. Progressive campaigns, for both elected offices and propositions, need to tell ABC that we won’t abide their whitewash of the facts.
Our campaigns have some leverage here. They need to call ABC stations in the state and let them know that they will not that they really don’t appreciate them airing propaganda.