arion1

The Path to 9/11 is an awful example of what can happen to the truth in the hands of those who make it up as they go along.

Unbeknownst to most people, this program was part of a deliberate disinformation campaign designed to blame the Clinton administration for allowing the 9/11 attacks to occur.

According to The Nation, the director, David Cunningham, is a Christian deconstructionist who is dedicated to using stealth political methods to replace the U.S. Constitution with Biblical law. The movie was written by Cyrus Nowrasteh, a right-wing activist connected to far-right activist David Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture, which also sells right-wing books and heavily promotes David Horowitz's own books. Horowitz titles include: Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes, The Hate America Left and The Politics of Bad Faith: The Radical Assault on America's Future.

Following the broadcast of The Path to 9/11, ABC's co-parent, the Walt Disney Company, reportedly ordered an internal corporate investigation into the movie and its intent. One wonders what they found?

I actually took part in a preview screening of this show in 1982, and it was so bad I still remember it vividly! The premise was based on cultural mix-ups. In brief, Bradley Ugily (pronounced you-gee-lee) and his family have moved from New Jersey to Southern California and must deal with the hip culture there. Along for the ride is his overweight mother, played by none other than Doris Roberts, who would go on to co-star in Remington Steele.

The truly awful thing about this show was the writing, which was done to fulfill an East Coast person's preconceptions about what California is like. All the Californians were tanned, wore Aloha shirts, and had perpetual smiles like their facial muscles were frozen stiff. The Ugily's moved into a beach-front house (of course!), and their daughter was concerned about her performance in a new fad, "Disco Sand-Dancing"! The entire show basically rested on a one-joke premise: that California is a beachfront Babylon of suntans and easy living. In all likelihood the writer lived in New York City and took his cues from listening to a tape-loop of the Beach Boys.

When the time came for the audience to submit their ratings, I took great pleasure in giving this video horror an enthusiastic thumbs-down. Thankfully, it sank into oblivion, never to resurface.