WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- Nine historians, headed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Arthur Schlesinger are calling on ABC to scrap a controversial mini-series about Sept. 11.
The script "distorts and even fabricates evidence," they wrote to Robert Iger, the chairman of Disney Corp., ABC's parent company. "Broadcasting these falsehoods, connected to the most traumatic historical event of our times, would be a gross disservice to the public... We strongly urge you to halt the show's broadcast."
The ABC mini-series, "The Path to 9-11," is billed is as a dramatization of the origins of the Sept. 11 plot, based in part on the report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which investigated the attacks.
But in recent days the film has come under a barrage of criticism from ex-President Clinton and former senior officials from his administration, because of the way it portrays their failed efforts to capture and kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Democratic members of the commission have joined calls for the network to change or scrap the film. Richard Ben-Veniste called some scenes "complete fiction," and added that "The mischaracterizations tended to support the notion that President (Clinton) was not attentive to anti-terrorism concerns. That was the opposite from what the Sept. 11 commission found."
The liberal blog, ThinkProgress.org, said more than 50,000 people had used its Web site to write letters of complaint to ABC, and on Thursday, the network said they would be making changes to the version of the film that was screened for reviewers and reporters, though they did not say what, or how extensive they would be.
