TPM Reader ML is confused by the president …

I am a bit confused, too. I thought the administration and its lackeys claimed it was treasonous to publicly discuss these secret prisons. I thought that the administration and its lackeys were pushing for journalists to be prosecuted for reporting about their existence. I thought that we were disloyal Americans for talking about such secret prisons. Are the administration’s past statements no longer operable now that there is an election two months away?

ML is a tad snarky about it. But, really, it’s the ugly truth. So much weight was put on the claim that these men were so dangerous they needed to be hidden in darkness. Long war. Long twilight struggle.

But the congressional generic won’t budge off that 10 point GOP deficit. So what the hell.

Clinton speaks out on ABC 9/11 bamboozlement flick, confirms that Clinton officials were denied opportunity for pre-screening.

Just out of curiosity: Does anyone know if there are any local ABC affiliates balking at showing the networks 9/11 bamboozlement documentary?

The Corner’s Mario Loyola explains what the war on terror is all about to Republicans: “The President just pulled one of the best maneuvers of his entire presidency. By transferring most major Al Qaeda terrorists to Guantanamo, and simultaneously sending Congress a bill to rescue the Military Commissions from the Supreme Court’s ruling Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the President spectacularly ambushed the Democrats on terrain they fondly thought their own. Now Democrats who oppose (and who have vociferously opposed) the Military Commissions will in effect be opposing the prosecution of the terrorists who planned and launched the attacks of September 11 for war crimes.”

Following up on the earlier post. I’d be particularly curious whether ABC local affiliates in the bigger blue state media markets are considering either not airing ABC’s agitprop 9/11 movie or airing some rebuttal to its apparent distortions and falsehoods. Boston? New York? LA? San Francisco? Anyone heard anything?

Okay, I admit it, my curiosity got the best of me. So I decided to call a few ABC local affiliates and see what the deal is, specifically whether they were planning on airing ABC’s Path to 9/11 and whether they planned on airing any rebuttal to the alleged errors contained in it.

I tried to get through to someone at Boston’s WHDH. But I couldn’t find a number that anyone would answer. So I moved on to KABC, the LA station that I grew up watching. The woman who I spoke to informed me that, yes, they were airing it. And no there would not be any rebuttal. However, there was going to be a “disclaimer” shown “throughout” the two night presentation. I had a hard time getting down the whole text of the disclaimer she read out to me. So I asked if she could email it to me. But she said she wasn’t allowed to do that.

Anyway, after that, a few readers helpfully pointed out that the ABC stations in the biggest markets are pretty much all O&O’s. That is, Disney/ABC owns the stations themselves. So they’re not really affiliates and they have no independent choice whether to air the movie. Apparently, at least New York, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Philly and Houston are all covered by Disney.

Do you live in a media market with an ABC channel that isn’t directly owned by Disney?

Late Update: My bad. The Boston ABC affiliate is WCVB.

A bit more on ABC’s O&Os, the local affiliates who are actually owned and operated by ABC parent company Disney. Here’s the list of all of them. But the rest — listed here — are independently owned. They don’t have to run the ABC 9/11 bamboozler if they don’t want to.

Just to remind everyone, think back to the Sinclair Broadcasting imbroglio. Petitions don’t mean jack. They don’t care. Local affiliates, though, live and die by the revenue they get from local advertisers. It’s a really big deal.

So take a look at the list of independent affiliates. And just ask them what they’re going to do. No need to be rude or unpleasant. It’s just a question. If you get a response, let us know and we’ll share it with the rest of our readers.

ABC 5 in Minneapolis to Viewers: Don’t Blame Us. The Network Made Us Do It!

Many television viewers have called or written to us to share their opinion of the ABC Special “Path to 9/11”. We may not all agree on the subject matter of certain programming, but Channel 5 does believe it is important to share information (often controversial) in order to bring different points of view into the public discourse.

Also, as the ABC affiliate, Channel 5 broadcasts ABC network programming but does not determine the content of it. We are the only locally-owned television station serving the Twin Cities, and hope that you will judge ABC network offerings separately from Channel 5’s own local news and public affairs programming.

As a matter of public record, your feedback is included in our public file. We also suggest that you make your opinion known to the originator of the program: ABCNEWS. To help, here is the contact information:
ABC Audience Information Department at 818/460-7477. You may also contact the network via email to abc.audience.relations@abc.com, or by visiting the network’s websites www.abc.com or www.abcnews.com.

Again, we appreciate your feedback and do hope that you will continue to watch Channel 5.

Sincerely,

Mike Smith
Director of Programming and Operations
KSTP-TV & KSTC.TV

What are the locals telling you?

Like we told you.

From RNC Chair Ken Mehlman’s email out tonight …

It’s very simple. Our government has no more basic obligation than to protect the American people in a time of war. Today, President Bush outlined the steps America is taking to question and detain the world’s most violent terrorists, and announced legislation to try these terrorists before military commissions.

Read the President’s speech and watch the video.

Because of interrogation programs by the CIA, our nation has gained invaluable intelligence that has saved American lives. Interrogations of terrorists including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, have led to the arrests of al Qaeda operatives planning to carry out attacks inside the United States and revealed the terror network’s plan to obtain biological weapons. In one chilling interrogation, Mohammed described instructing his operatives to set off explosions in buildings at points high enough to prevent those trapped from escaping out of the windows.

These new revelations are a clear reminder that the threat is real, and that we must pursue victory in this war with all our might. Because a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year put the CIA’s interrogation program at risk, the President is sending legislation to Congress to specifically authorize the creation of military commissions to try these suspected terrorists for war crimes. When this legislation is passed, the people our intelligence agencies believe orchestrated 9/11 can face justice.

Watch key excerpts of the President’s address and write a letter to the editor on these important efforts to keep Americans safe.

Time and time again, some Democrats in Washington have questioned why our government needs tools like these to prevent attacks on American soil. They have questioned the terrorist surveillance program, and bragged about “killing” the Patriot Act. The #2 Democrat in the Senate even likened America’s interrogation practices to those in Nazi or Soviet concentration camps.

Americans now have the facts about these vital efforts to prevent future attacks. The terrorists in American custody are not just innocent bystanders. They are dangerous murderers who would kill again if set free. Take a stand and ensure our military and intelligence agencies continue to have every tool they need to fight this threat.

Right on schedule.

ABC’s disclaimer, which they say will run “throughout” their 9/11 movie …

The following movie is a dramatization that is drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 Commission Report and other published materials, and from personal interviews. The movie is not a
documentary. For dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, as well as time compression.

Network officials have sent a statement affiliates are supposed to read to viewers who write in or call to complain. And basically the statement is just a recitation of this disclaimer.