Daily Variety, one of the two big industry dailies on “the biz” reports that ABC is considering yanking The Path to 9/11.  The article itself if quite whiney, but the news it reports is good.  Frankly, it would be astounding if ABC had not considered yanking it at this point; the real question, and real news will be if ABC does the right thing and pulls it. 

Update: Over at Salon, Joe Conason has watched the “docudrama” and weighs in.  He provides his usual cogent analysis and great links.  While many have commented on the lies inserted to smear Clinton, Conason also covers some of the ways the piece whitewashes the Bush administration:

If the producers of “The Path to 9/11″ unfairly indict the Clinton administration with fabricated scenes and notions, they go out of their way to exonerate the Bush White House by ignoring certain damning facts — and creating substitutes that make the president look better. The movie shows a smarmy, condescending Condoleezza Rice demoting Clarke in January 2001 when she takes over as national security advisor. Clarke tries to warn her that “something spectacular” is going to happen on American soil, and she assures him that “we’re on it,” which they assuredly were not.

Indeed, the script downplays the neglect of terrorism as a primary threat by the incoming Bush team — and never mentions the counterterrorism task force, chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney, that never met for nine months before 9/11. The famous Aug. 6 presidential daily briefing, which warned the vacationing Bush that al-Qaida intended to strike here, is given due attention. But the movie then shows Rice telling her associates that “as a result of the Aug. 6 PDB, the president wants to take real action” against al-Qaida. But the 9/11 Commission report’s section on the PDB clearly states that the August warning was not followed up on by Rice: 

“We found no indication of any further discussion before September 11 among the President and his top advisers of the possibility of a threat of an Al Qaeda attack in the United States.” No action was contemplated before 9/11 and the movie’s attempt to claim otherwise is another distortion. 

If anything good will come out of this, it may that more of the public will become aware of the actual record on fighting terrorism for both Clinton and Bush.  If ABC’s piece airs as is, my hopes for that are not high.  But wouldn’t the truth getting wider exposure be a wonderful, ironic coda to all this?  As it is, this will be topic #1 on all the news shows this weekend.  I’m sure we’ll see some prime spinning!