WILL HEADS ROLL AT ABC FOR THE FAR RIGHT PROPAGANDA PIECE THAT AIRED?

Sydney Blumenthal has a new book coming out, published by Princeton University Press, HOW BUSH RULES-- CHRONICLES OF A RADICAL REGIME. His premise is that Bush is the most willfully radical president in American history. He "ran as a moderate, tacked right and governed ineffectually-- before 9/11. Since then he's become the most radical American president in history-- and arguably the worst." Obviously the kind of book I'll be devouring. I spoke to Blumenthal yesterday about getting some signed copies to give away to Blue America contributors. He's optimistic that he can talk the publisher into it. Liberal Oasis has a great interview with Sydney about the weighty and disturbing issues raised in the book today.

Meanwhile, the other brilliant Blumenthal, Max, has a piece in this week's Nation on the right wing roots of ABC's propaganda hit piece about 9-11-- another must read. "On Friday, September 8, just forty-eight hours before ABC planned to air its so-called 'docudrama, The Path to 9/11, Robert Iger, CEO of ABC's corporate parent, the Walt Disney Company, was presented with incontrovertible evidence outlining the involvement of that film's screenwriter and director in a concerted right-wing effort to blame former President Bill Clinton for allowing the 9/11 attacks to take place. Iger told a source close to ABC that he was 'deeply troubled' by the information and claimed he had no previous knowledge of the institutional right-wing ties of The Path to 9/11's creators. He reportedly said that he has commenced an internal investigation to verify the role of the film's creators in deliberately advancing disinformation through ABC."

So will responsibility be placed and action taken? I suspect a scapegoat will be found for this travesty which will forever blemish-- if not destroy-- ABC's reputation. Blumenthal makes the point that it is Iger himself who "bears ultimate responsibility for authorizing the product of a well-honed propaganda operation-- a network of little-known right-wingers working from within Hollywood to counter its supposedly liberal bias. This is the network within the ABC network. Its godfather is far-right activist David Horowitz, who has worked for more than a decade to establish a right-wing presence in Hollywood and to discredit mainstream film and TV production. On this project, a secretive evangelical religious right group long associated with Horowitz, founded by The Path to 9/11's director, David Cunningham, aims to 'transform Hollywood' in line with its messianic vision, has taken the lead."

If ABC has wanted to make a non-partisan movie about the run up to 9/11, the obvious place to turn would have been to the brilliant book by Ron Suskind, THE ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE, not to the patently twisted efforts by radical right fringe propagandists with connections to the Bush Regime. To me ABC allowed itself to become part of a desperate and well-honed propaganda effort, directed by Karl Rove, to salvage right wing control of Congress in November. It is all part of Rove's cynical Vote Republican Or Die strategy. Bush mouths this drivel ever time he opens his yap. It could work, although I suspect most Americans have stopped listening to them. The more Americans see of the Bush Regime in action, the more they understand that the responsibility for 9/11 rests primarily with them. There's probably a good reason why Keith Olbermann's ratings have soared past CNN's since he started calling the Bush Regime out on their incompetence and criminality over the last month. Yesterday Jamie at Crooks and Liars has the latest installment of speaking truth to power on MSNBC. This is probably Olbermann's most powerful indictment to date.