THE WASHINGTON TIMES
TV show depicts 9/11 as Bush plot
Thu Jun 9, 2005 23:40
64.140.159.250
TV show depicts 9/11 as Bush plot
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050608-095942-4588r.htm
By Tom Goeller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A fictional crime drama based on the premise that the Bush administration
ordered the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington
aired this week on German state television, prompting the Green Party
chairman to call for an investigation.
"I think absolutely nothing of the conspiracy theory that has been
hawked in this series. I hope this particular TV movie will be discussed
very critically at the next supervisory board meeting of ARD [state
television]," said Green Party Chairman Reinhard Buetikofer, who
acknowledged that he had not seen the show.
Sunday night's episode of "Tatort," a popular murder mystery that has
been running on state-run ARD-German television for 35 years, revolved
around a German woman and a man who was killed in her apartment.
According to the plot, which was seen by approximately 7 million
Germans, the dead man had been trained to be one of the September 11 pilots
but was left behind, only to be tracked down and killed by CIA or FBI
assassins.
The woman, who says in the program that the September 11 attacks were
instigated by the Bush family for oil and power, then is targeted,
presumably to silence her. The drama concludes with the German detectives
accepting the truth of her story as she eludes the U.S. government hit men
and escapes to safety in an unnamed Arab country.
As ludicrous as it may sound to most Americans, the tale has resonance
in Germany, where fantastic conspiracy theories often are taken as fact.
Many Germans think, for example, that the 1969 moon landing was faked,
and a poll published in the weekly Die Zeit showed that 31 percent of
Germans younger than 30 "think that there is a certain possibility that the
U.S. government ordered the attacks of 9/11."
In fact, three of the hijackers who seized control of commercial
airlines on September 11, 2001, including the ringleader, Mohamed Atta,
purportedly had ties to a Hamburg, Germany-based al Qaeda cell.
ARD, and ARD-produced television shows, are funded by a monthly tax on
German televisions. The network plays a role similar to the British
Broadcasting Corp., or the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States,
which is nominally independent but funded by taxpayers.
"Tatort," which translates to "Crime Scene," is a drama with a rotating
cast of actors solving mysteries in weekly episodes set throughout Germany.
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin was not impressed with the latest episode,
which seemed to use haunting Arabic music to portray Arabs and Muslims as
innocent victims of American aggression.
"Any claim or suggestion that the United States government was behind
the 9/11 disaster is absolutely absurd and not worthy of further comment,"
said Robert A. Wood, spokesman for the embassy.
A German diplomat in Washington said no one in Germany took the plot
seriously because it was "pure fiction."
"It was so out of line with what people really think," the diplomat
said, adding that the episode does not deserve further comment.
Nicholas Kralev in Washington contributed to this article.
===============
Bill Moyers Makes a Point
By Cliff Kincaid | June 9, 2005
The answer to liberal bias on public TV or radio isn't to fund conservative bias because people like Moyers are going to be clamoring for more funding of liberal bias. And that means the taxpayers lose.
At the recent so-called "media reform" conference funded by George Soros, his friend Bill Moyers delivered a keynote address. Most of it was predictable left-wing rhetoric. But he did make a point we have been making-the American taxpayers should not be forced to spend their money on a public TV show featuring members of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
Moyers noted that Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, put up a considerable sum of money, about $5 million, for a new weekly broadcast featuring Paul Gigot and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. Moyers commented that Gigot "is a smart journalist, a sharp editor, and a fine fellow." Moyers said that he had Gigot on his own public TV show, "Now," several times and that Moyers even proposed that he become a regular contributor.
Moyers went on to say, "But I confess to some puzzlement that the Wall Street Journal, which in the past editorialized to cut PBS off the public tap, is now being subsidized by American taxpayers although its parent company, Dow Jones, had revenues in just the first quarter of this year of $400 million. I thought public television was supposed to be an alternative to commercial media, not a funder of it."
Moyers called this a "weird deal," and we agree. But it's also weird to have used the CPB-supported Public Broadcasting Service to provide a platform for Bill Moyers for all these years. Moyers doesn't like the show, Journal Editorial Report, calling it a case of "right-wingers talking to each other." He asked, "Why not $5 million to put the editors of the Nation on PBS?" He advocated balancing "right-wing talk with left-wing talk."
Unfortunately, that may be where we're heading, and that's where Tomlinson has gone wrong. The answer to liberal bias on public TV or radio isn't to fund conservative bias because people like Moyers are going to be clamoring for more funding of liberal bias. And that means the taxpayers lose. End the bias, from the left and right, by terminating the funding. Save the taxpayers $400 million a year. Isn't this a reasonable compromise?
http://www.aim.org/media_monitor_print/3684_0_2_0/
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050608-095942-4588r.htm
By Tom Goeller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A fictional crime drama based on the premise that the Bush administration
ordered the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington
aired this week on German state television, prompting the Green Party
chairman to call for an investigation.
"I think absolutely nothing of the conspiracy theory that has been
hawked in this series. I hope this particular TV movie will be discussed
very critically at the next supervisory board meeting of ARD [state
television]," said Green Party Chairman Reinhard Buetikofer, who
acknowledged that he had not seen the show.
Sunday night's episode of "Tatort," a popular murder mystery that has
been running on state-run ARD-German television for 35 years, revolved
around a German woman and a man who was killed in her apartment.
According to the plot, which was seen by approximately 7 million
Germans, the dead man had been trained to be one of the September 11 pilots
but was left behind, only to be tracked down and killed by CIA or FBI
assassins.
The woman, who says in the program that the September 11 attacks were
instigated by the Bush family for oil and power, then is targeted,
presumably to silence her. The drama concludes with the German detectives
accepting the truth of her story as she eludes the U.S. government hit men
and escapes to safety in an unnamed Arab country.
As ludicrous as it may sound to most Americans, the tale has resonance
in Germany, where fantastic conspiracy theories often are taken as fact.
Many Germans think, for example, that the 1969 moon landing was faked,
and a poll published in the weekly Die Zeit showed that 31 percent of
Germans younger than 30 "think that there is a certain possibility that the
U.S. government ordered the attacks of 9/11."
In fact, three of the hijackers who seized control of commercial
airlines on September 11, 2001, including the ringleader, Mohamed Atta,
purportedly had ties to a Hamburg, Germany-based al Qaeda cell.
ARD, and ARD-produced television shows, are funded by a monthly tax on
German televisions. The network plays a role similar to the British
Broadcasting Corp., or the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States,
which is nominally independent but funded by taxpayers.
"Tatort," which translates to "Crime Scene," is a drama with a rotating
cast of actors solving mysteries in weekly episodes set throughout Germany.
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin was not impressed with the latest episode,
which seemed to use haunting Arabic music to portray Arabs and Muslims as
innocent victims of American aggression.
"Any claim or suggestion that the United States government was behind
the 9/11 disaster is absolutely absurd and not worthy of further comment,"
said Robert A. Wood, spokesman for the embassy.
A German diplomat in Washington said no one in Germany took the plot
seriously because it was "pure fiction."
"It was so out of line with what people really think," the diplomat
said, adding that the episode does not deserve further comment.
Nicholas Kralev in Washington contributed to this article.
===============
Bill Moyers Makes a Point
By Cliff Kincaid | June 9, 2005
The answer to liberal bias on public TV or radio isn't to fund conservative bias because people like Moyers are going to be clamoring for more funding of liberal bias. And that means the taxpayers lose.
At the recent so-called "media reform" conference funded by George Soros, his friend Bill Moyers delivered a keynote address. Most of it was predictable left-wing rhetoric. But he did make a point we have been making-the American taxpayers should not be forced to spend their money on a public TV show featuring members of the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
Moyers noted that Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, put up a considerable sum of money, about $5 million, for a new weekly broadcast featuring Paul Gigot and the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. Moyers commented that Gigot "is a smart journalist, a sharp editor, and a fine fellow." Moyers said that he had Gigot on his own public TV show, "Now," several times and that Moyers even proposed that he become a regular contributor.
Moyers went on to say, "But I confess to some puzzlement that the Wall Street Journal, which in the past editorialized to cut PBS off the public tap, is now being subsidized by American taxpayers although its parent company, Dow Jones, had revenues in just the first quarter of this year of $400 million. I thought public television was supposed to be an alternative to commercial media, not a funder of it."
Moyers called this a "weird deal," and we agree. But it's also weird to have used the CPB-supported Public Broadcasting Service to provide a platform for Bill Moyers for all these years. Moyers doesn't like the show, Journal Editorial Report, calling it a case of "right-wingers talking to each other." He asked, "Why not $5 million to put the editors of the Nation on PBS?" He advocated balancing "right-wing talk with left-wing talk."
Unfortunately, that may be where we're heading, and that's where Tomlinson has gone wrong. The answer to liberal bias on public TV or radio isn't to fund conservative bias because people like Moyers are going to be clamoring for more funding of liberal bias. And that means the taxpayers lose. End the bias, from the left and right, by terminating the funding. Save the taxpayers $400 million a year. Isn't this a reasonable compromise?
http://www.aim.org/media_monitor_print/3684_0_2_0/
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