UPDATE: This is his response to the LA Times piece claiming the Clintons are blocking DVD distribution.

Whatever your view of Peter Lance, you have to admit this takes guts.  

As the author of one of the three books on which The Path was based, I’m now weighing in – despite a gag order - to suggest that ABC may have other reasons for shelving Nowrasteh’s Clinton bash; a mini-series that virtually blames 9/11 on the ex-President’s failures to get bin Laden, yet gives a pass to Bush 41 for failing to stop the first World Trade Center bombing and Bush 43 for "The Day Of;" arguably the greatest defense failure in US history....

As Lance explains:

But the [$250K] deal contained a "non-disparagement" clause and gag order. In order to keep me from telling the real truth behind their distortion of my work, ABC would hold off paying me the final $50K until a month after The Path to 9/11 aired.

It gets better.

Last year, in the wake of the controversial Walt Disney Company funded and ABC Network Production of "The Path to 9/11", I decided to boycott Walt Disney Company.  That included boycotting ABC.  Think Progress was very proactive in getting the message out that this was a very inflammatory, inaccurate portrayal of events that led to 9/11/2001 http://thinkprogress.org/...

Canada will not renew anti-terror legislation or allow indefinite detention of suspects. Former CIA consultant, Chalmers Johnson, says 9/11 was "blowback" for CIA meddling, and America's dogged pursuit of empire makes totalitarian regime inevitable at home.

In this edition: Who pulled advertising from O’Reilly’s show; who’s got a bigger ego than O’Falafel?; NYT embracing user-generated content?; Democrats & the FCC; Scooter Libby trial; ABC’s Barbaro priorities; Fox reporter forgets that Peter Jennings died; Vanity Fair’s political voice; WaPo retreats from Cheney lawsuit; Molly Ivins, RIP; Obama freezes out Fox News; AAR’s new owner; talking billboards?; Call Rita Cosby for a good time; ratings; and so much more...

Thoughts, and Then, the News
What makes a presidential candidate mainstream? It’s a question being asked. My answer? A candidate is "mainstream" if the D.C. news media says so. Race plays a role (see Carney’s "didn’t come from the civil rights movement" swipe), but it’s certainly not the only factor.  Nobody in D.C. is taking Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel seriously; few think Duncan Hunter has a shot at the nomination.  The media treats presidential candidates inequitably, but it has a lot to do with who they know well and/or who talks to them.

If you recall, one of the biggest achievements of the Netroots since its conception was getting ABC to scale back its lies and stopping Scholastic from distributing guides to the deceitful drama.  Apparently, the fight isn't over yet.

 I must stress the fact that there has not been ANYONE more committed to exposing the hypocrisy of ABC News or Disney Entertainment than John at AmericaBlog. He is a whiz at co-ordinating boycotts, and he once again has ABC/Disney in his sites.

  The rumblings from the ABC/Disney vs Spocko had lessened to a dull roar, when this was revealed....

So Fox News, a channel that makes a living out of smearing the Clinton Administration, didn't want to pay actors and lighting crews and cameramen and editors to do it, so they've decided to just rip off Disney instead:

NEW YORK — In a move that could rekindle a heated political debate, Fox News said Thursday that it planned to broadcast footage from ABC's controversial miniseries "The Path to 9/11" that was edited out of the docudrama amid criticism that it inaccurately portrayed the Clinton administration's response to the terrorism threat.

The outtakes, scheduled to air Sunday, depict then-national security advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger refusing to approve a CIA request to attack Osama bin Laden, an event that Berger and the Sept. 11 commission say did not occur.

Inflection Points And Catastrophies

In the mathematical field called differential equations, we can calculate the points when a system changes its behavior.  In the field of catastrophe theory, we look for these inflection points because some of them will show us when the system itself will transform into something new, and never be able to go back to its previous form.  In politics we don't have the benefit of a mathematical description to guide us.

But we can still look for inflection points and anticipate catastrophe points.  In the next 80 days, I am anticipating our political system will hit a catastrophe point and inviting others to look for it as well.  I certainly could be wrong.  Nevertheless, the next 80 days will be interesting in any case, and looking at events through this perspective will not be a waste of time.  We are looking for the point of no confidence by the People in this Administration.

The progressive community (myself included) was all up in arms regarding the ABC 9/11 hack job, The Path to 9/11. The broadcast did motivate us to contact ABC affiliates and advertisers, countless diaries and news stories were done, and the media dissected it left and right. But looking back on it 2 months later, it didn't really matter much.

I can hardly believe it myself, but I'm looking for a copy of ABC's "The Path to 9/11." I'll be using it as an academic case study to examine the nexus of corporate broadcasting and political communication. But I suppose I should actually see it first. (Couldn't bring myself to watch when it was on.)

Interestingly enough, it's been completely scrubbed from both the ABC site and from  iTunes (did it ever actually get posted there?). It's not on Amazon; listed, but not available. I checked eBay and I could get one for $30... from India. (India? Yeah. That's globalization for you.) I might try the Torrent route, too.

But ideally, a DVD would be the way to go. Does anyone have one (haha) or have any ideas how to track one down? If so, please reply here or drop me an email.

Thanks much!

It appears that Stone must be trying to appease those on the right who've lambasted him for years over his political beliefs; what else, besides cold hard cash from raging conservatives, would cause him to potentially attach himself to something like this?

It looks like the brains behind "The Path to 9/11" will be at work again soon. Cyrus Nowrestah will be writing a new movie scheduled for production by Paramount Pictures. This movie is called "Jawbreaker", and will (you guessed it) put the blame on Bill Clinton once again.

From Variety.com

Cyrus Nowrasteh, whose most recent credit was the controversial ABC miniseries "The Path to 9/11," is set to write a second draft of "Jawbreaker." Script is based in part on a memoir of the same name by Gary Bernsten, the CIA's pointman during the invasion, who coordinated the efforts of the CIA and Special Operations Forces to end Taliban rule.

more below the fold

There are a few diaries from early in the Foley-gate news flood proposing that ABC's role in breaking the story might be evidence that the whole thing is a Rove plot. After all, Disney-ABC is clearly deep in the pockets of the GOP since they aired the slanderous Path to 9-11 crockumentary.

I find that pretty hard to believe. Even if this was initially intended as a distraction, it seems pretty clear that the way this story is developing is out of anyone's control and completely toxic to the GOP.

The ABC News Division and the ABC Entertainment division are two seperate units. But I find it very interesting that the Foley story was broken by Brian Ross of ABC News. ABC didn't break the initial email, but rather the much more graphic IM's. It was being asked about these emails that lead to Foley's resignation.

Swiftboating: Creating portrayals of historical events with words and video in an attempt to deceive, usually for furthering a political agenda.

Although the factual errors in "The Path to 9/11" have been well-documented, Republican-leaning news services, political commentators, and bloggers have continued to repeat the false depictions of "The Path to 9/11" as if these were factual, well-documented, historical accounts.

In the Media Matters report, "Fox anchors praised The Path to 9/11, disregarded reasons for all the "controversy"", Bill Gertz, the national security reporter for The Washington Times, was being interviewed by Fox host Steve Doocy. The following exchange took place:

Rudy gave a speech today that is being billed as a defense of Clinton in causing 9/11.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

I don't think Giuliani came to Clinton's defense at all. I think he is simply trying to go back to the "gentlemen's aggreement" that seemed to exist before ABC aired that propaganda piece "The Path to 9/11". Prior to that piece, Democrats did not blame Bush, and Repugs did not blame Clinton.  Each side had their reasons.

During the furor preceding the airing of ABC's fakeumentary The Path to 9/11 I was one of several people who called for a boycott of the iTunes store if Steve Jobs and Apple went ahead with their plans to make the program available for free on the store as a "public service".

It is now over two weeks later, and the program has not appeared on the iTunes store in any form, free or for sale. I have repeatedly called Apple, and though I cannot find a person who can definitively say, "we have no plans to carry it in the future," I have spoken to several people who have said, "I have been told of no plans to carry it in the future."

So, having been someone who organized a petition and threats of boycott against the iTunes store, I feel responsible now to report that, to the best of my ability to verify it, Apple is not carrying that program. It appears that the combined pressure of thousands of people calling did indeed have the desired effect, even if Apple will no make any official announcement stating so.

In all the brouhaha over Disney's "Path to 9/11" the ultimately punchline was that few watched it.  Monday Night Football, on the other hand, is usually among the most watched shows of the week.  Last night, in addition to seeing the Saints give hope to a region, they saw just how little has been done to repair the damage.  In the end, more people likely saw the manifest failure of the Bush administration in New Orleans than saw the lies about Clinton two weeks ago.