ABC Edits 9/11 Film, Loses First Night to NBC

ABC's provocative mini-series The Path to 9/11 debuted last night amid a flurry of criticism that the film's creators had fabricated crucial events leading up to the attack, including complaints from President Bill Clinton and others, and lost the ratings battle to NBC's football debut. ABC bowed to the pressure a bit, cutting parts of the broadcast - more from tonight's installment than last night's - and adding several disclaimers. Before The Path to 9/11 even started, a disclaimer read that characters had been composites and that "for dramatic and narrative purposes the movie contains fictionalized scenes." During the mini-series, two notes ran that claimed the material was "drawn from a variety of sources including the 9/11 commission report and other published materials and from personal interviews." The original version sent to critics claimed that the film was based on the 9/11 commission report.

In The Path to 9/11, Clinton officials are seen protecting themselves instead of going after Osama Bin Laden, leading viewers to believe that the ball was dropped by Clinton and his staff that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks. In one highly controversial scene, Clinton's security advisor, Sandy Berger won't give the order to take a kill shot on Bin Laden at his Afghanistan camp, a scene which everyone involved claims never happened. Clinton claims that ABC "chose fiction over fact and entertainment over education."

Marc Platt, executive producer of The Path to 9/11, has admitted that the Berger scene was based on a "conflation of events". Several Clinton aides and several prominent Democrats have sent letters to the President and CEO of ABC's parent company, the Walt Disney Company, Robert Iger complaining about The Path to 9/11, and Harry Reid and Howard Dean have gone on record claiming that the film is purely designed to tar Clinton and is nothing more than political propaganda.

Jay Carson, spokesman for The Clinton Foundation, released a statement about the edits and the broadcast, as reprinted by The BBC, "Their claims of edits notwithstanding, The Path to 9/11 had Clinton administration officials saying things they did not say and doing things they did not do. Many of these scenes are directly contradicted by the 9/11 Commission Report. The American public deserved better."

So, did all the controversy lead to viewers? Sort of. The first night of The Path to 9/11 did well in the ratings but was dominated by the premiere of Sunday Night Football on NBC. The match between the Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants took home an impressive 15.1 rating for the night, compared to The Path to 9/11's 8.2. CBS's documentary 9/11 had the same rating, an 8.2 in the overnights. The numbers were comparable to the season open of The Simpsons, which notched an 8.1. Also on the evening, Fox went on something of a ratings roller coaster, with American Dad losing 26% of its Simpsons lead-in with a 6.0 rating and Family Guy improved 2% on its last year premiere with a 6.7 rating. The War At Home dropped to a 5.0, losing 25% of the Family Guy audience.

[Sources: New York Daily News, Reuters, Mediaweek]