So, ABC is planning to air Part 2 of its now-infamous TV movie, “The Path to 9/11,” on Monday night, September 11, from 8 to 10 p.m. (Here’s background on the controversy surrounding the movie and its apparent anti-Clinton slant.)
But now it turns out that President Bush wants all the networks to give him live coverage for a speech from the Oval Office on Monday night at 9 p.m. Right in the middle of the scheduled movie time. (The talk will last 16-18 minutes and the White House says it “will not be political in nature.” Yeah, right.)
This could be a great opportunity for ABC to bow out and cancel the film entirely – shades of Charles Krauthammer and the Harriet Miers withdrawal.
So the President wants time on national television to talk about his golf game and his favorite recipe for streudel? Seriously, how could anything said by any President in a nationally televised address not be political? Does the administration not understand the meaning of the term?
I think a presidential remembrance speech on 9/11 could in concept be nonpolitical, or at least nonpartisan. I know that concept is going to be difficult for Kossacks, but I think it is possible on a 5-year anniversary of such an event.