ABC's "Path to 9-11" Controversy

On September 10th and 11th ABC and Disney aired The Path to 9-11, a special two part docudrama based on the 9-11 Commission Report, with Commission chair Tom Kean as a consultant. However, trouble began to brew before the series even aired, after ABC sent advance screeners to various third parties for review. By the end of August, former Clinton Administration officials and Democrats in Congress were lobbying ABC to either edit or cancel the miniseries due to concerns that some scenes were "factually wrong", portrayed the Clinton Administration in a bad light, and accusing ABC of pushing conservative propaganda. (It is worthwhile to note that the producer of the series donated money to numerous Democratic candidates.) The Democrat leadership of the US Senate went so far as to send ABC a letter which said, in part: "We urge you, after full consideration of the facts, to uphold your responsibilities as a respected member of American society and as a beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves to cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program." Others have noted that the second half of the mini series is just as hard on the Bush Administration's failures leading up to 9/11.

Further controversy began to spread throughout the various political blogs following accusations that ABC sent screeners to right-wing blogs and conservative talk radio. It appears, however, that ABC did not send screeners to bloggers specifically, and the talk radio shows that received one were highly rated in their respective markets.

By September 7th, ABC had agreed to edit some of the most contentious scenes and went ahead with the scheduled airing, which had the highest ratings for its Monday night timeslot.

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