I received email messages today that encouraged me to sign petitions urging the president of ABC to pull the docu-drama, "Path to 9/11." I read the messages, allowed my outrage to well up inside me, and did as requested. I urged others to do the same.
Now, I'm having second thoughts. While I think the docu-drama is loaded with bullshit and fabrications and is obviously intended to turn swing voters into Republican voters, I am not so sure urging censorship is the right thing to do. The more comments I hear from both the left and the right, the more I think both sides are running on empty hatred and are abandoning the core principles of fairness and justice and, importantly, freedom of expression. I truly, totally HATE some of the lies that lay at the core of the film, as I understand it. But there have been similar attack films that aim their venom at conservative Republicans and I have probably laughed at them and found them to be less than offensive.
My failure to find offense in films that attack Republicans and conservatives is...a failure. If I were truly as progressive as I'd like to believe I am, I would find both forms of free expression obnoxious and annoying...but I would not call for their censorship.
So, here's where I stand at the moment. I condemn the manipulative use of 9/11 and the fears it calls up and I will argue against it and try to convince people that it is what I believe it to be. But I will not support censoring it. Let the assholes screen the film and then let the righteous wrath of the public spew down on the makers and get lots of press. In future, if I encounter a similar attack, based on lies and manipulation, by 'progressives' against conservatives, I will be just as vocal about it. I will condemn it and suggest to the makers that they should be ashamed of themselves and will urge anyone who will listen to defend the makers' right to show it.
It won't bother me much if Path to 9/11 doesn't air, but I am ashamed of getting involved in, and encouraging, the moral equivalent of bookburning.
1 comment:
I hope you didn't think I was jumping on you regarding this subject. Your point is valid - and if you truly feel this way - you should of course make those feelings known. What ABC is doing just really upset me. You see - I think this is much worse than it appears; and I'm not talking subject matter. Another entertainment conglomerate - the second being Fox - has given itself over to promoting propaganda. TV, film, print, radio - all presenting a single world view - one designed to marginalize and exclude. Adding in educational materials for kids just put me right over the edge. It shakes me, John. That’s why I referred to it as Hitlerian. We are so close to tipping into fascism as it is. So I do understand your point. And I don’t believe in censorship. But at the same time – I fear what this could turn into. If ABC airs this inaccurate view of history without (at the very least) massive protest; then – well – I predict there will be more of fictions passing as truth. Did you know the state of Florida recently passed a bill stating that history, as taught in schools, was not open to debate or correction – even if it was to be found factually incorrect? I found that frightening. I think what ABC is doing is frightening too.
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