There is a lot of noise in the blogosphere currently regarding the ABC “documentary” on 9/11 that’s set to air this weekend. I’ve been trying to avoid it, partly because it has seemed just too partisan, partly because I find much of what’s on American broadcast networks to be complete and utter crap, and partly because I have issues with Disney and therefore have issue with its corporate kin. Why waste the energy?
However, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out a good article at The Moderate Voice which, if true, does a very good job of explaining why the documentary may justifiably have crossed the line from “controversial” to “politically biased” or even “near-propaganda”. I can’t do Joe Gandelman’s piece justice without reposting it word for word, so I’ll just encourage you to check it out.
However, Joe does make a very important reminder which bears repeating and remembering as the media and blogs do a bit of fifth anniversary finger-pointing in the coming days:
If you read the 911 commission report or accounts of it what’s clear is that MANY ADMINISTRATIONS of BOTH PARTIES dropped the ball on pre-911 national security in terms of preparing for or preventing a major terrorist attack.
Blaming solely the Bush administration, while fun to do, isn’t really accurate. Similarly, pushing a disproportionate amount of blame onto the shoulders of the Clinton administration is also misleading. There’s plenty of blame to go around, and personally I think it would be more worthwhile at looking at what went wrong and how it has been / should be fixed going forward.
It’s sad that we apparently can’t rise above the politics to make that happen.