Can't pretend about things that are real
I find the allegations about the new miniseries on nineEleven (to likely air this weekend) highly disturbing. This past year has seen two movies related to the topic, and besides wondering if they are "too soon", there is always the question about if they are too fictionalized/dramatized a representation of the actual real events ... to be redundant, that actually happened
My three observations about the controversial miniseries
1. The series allegedly overemphasizes President Clinton and his cabinet's role in promoting the environment that lead to nineEleven, including fictionalizing events that suggest that we could have taken down OBL if the President wasn't so concerned about his personal Lewinsky scandal -- and that gross leadership misfeasance lead to missed opportunities to prevent terrorism
2. A major educational provider plans to give this movie to high schools as a teaching aid to learn about nineEleven. Again, this is a tricky fine line because this is not a historical movie, it is admittedly a dramatic interpretation of events. Given the historical importance of the event, would you want your child learning it from such a simplistic at best, and incorrect at worst, vehicle
3. Lastly, and I think this follows on with the first two points -- if it does fictionalize events to make the show more interesting, and if it takes a dramatic slant (some would say, right wing view) that the Clinton administration is largely to blame -- then it is not as the network claims, to be largely based in the nineEleven commission's report. So, it will drag a whole ton of people, ideas, and events through a dramatic reshaping ... and out of it will come (regrettably) some people's understanding of what actually happened, in other words, some people will learn the wrong thing -- and the network does not appear concerned about this eventuality
I just happen to think that no matter what the informational vehicle, the events of that day are too important to be reduced to entertainment, for entertainment's sake.
In many ways, I still do not feel that we as citizens know the answers to key questions as well. I don't think anyone is served by this kind of television, much less find it remotely useful to educate our children with about one of our country's seminal historical events