Best Comeback of Last Week: On the Runup to “The Path to 9/11″

Ruben Navarrette Jr., in a subscription-only op-ed in last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal:

Despite this pressure, ABC Entertainment held its ground and deserves credit for doing so. The message of the film remained the same — that there is blame to go around, that the Clinton administration missed various opportunities to get bin Laden, and that the terrible events of 9/11 did not come out of the clear blue sky.

The big surprise was when journalists showed their true colors by siding with the Clintonistas even if it meant flirting with censorship. Typical was the response of Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times, who blasted the network as “an opportunistic and self-interested organization that somehow thought it could approach the most wrenching American tragedy since Pearl Harbor with the values that prevail among network television executives — the sort of ad hoc ethics that would make a streetwalker blush — and that nobody would mind.”

Actually, Tim, here’s what I mind. I mind being told that I can’t tell the difference between a made-for-TV movie and a documentary. I mind that a former president of the United States and former members of his administration would be so worried about protecting their legacy that they wound up tarnishing it even further. I mind that members of Congress would even hint at pulling the license of a major television network. And I mind that journalists who should know better would join in the criticism and claim that the only thing that concerns them is that Hollywood get the story right. I don’t recall similar concerns from members of the press when an Oliver Stone movie speculated about what President Richard Nixon might have said to confidants in the privacy of the White House.

Re the last sentence: Neither do I, in spite of genuine outrage from the Nixon family that PERSONAL events portrayed never happened, and never could have been construed to have happened based on the real-life character qualities of family members. And it remains true that Stone’s movie is used as reference matierial in classrooms, while Scholastic.com withdrew previously-developed “The Path to 9/11″ materials in response to the pressure.

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ABSOLUTE MUST-READ FOLLOW-UP:

The Path to Hysteria
My sin was to write a screenplay accurately depicting Bill Clinton’s record on terrorism.

It’s a hard-drive saver, at OpinionJournal.com. The author, Cyrus Nowrasteh, wrote the “Path” screenplay. Do not miss it. I would excerpt it, but to get all the good parts I’d have to copy the whole thing.