:: Dano's Production Journal ::

:: 9/06/2006 ::

It just keeps getting weirder.

So ABC is not only airing a highly partisan and inaccurate 9/11 docudrama, they're sending it to schools as a teaching tool. Say what?

Here's my response to Mr. Iger. You can send your own here:

To whom it may concern.

I do not oppose the Walt Disney Company's right to produce entertainment that espouses a wide variety of opinions, points of view, or agendas. However, the USE of this media must be examined and criticized in an open forum. Disney's decision to selectively send screener tapes only to conservative bloggers is highly suspicious (but not unpredictable for a publicity stunt). As is the public relations campaign that is sending screener copies to schools as an 'educational tool.' A true educational resource would include access to facts and different interpretations of those facts. If an event portrayed in your film is dramatized, students should be notified. If events are portrayed offscreen or left out, students should be notified. I have worked for educational software companies that produce social studies courses. I know the power in my hands when I choose one image to show over another, or one quote over another. Do you realize that power when your studio fictionalizes or distorts real events that are so fresh in our memory, yet often misreported or unreported in our media?

I cannot ask you to not air your film, but I do request that you open a forum on your webpage or Nightline to openly discuss the opposing points of view and that questions the filmmakers and their intent. Any educational curriculum sent out to teachers should include copies of the 9/11 Commission report, along with other resources for teachers and students. Children need to know what is going on in the world, but they also need to be media literate and skeptical, skills severely lacking in our populace. Do not hinder or confuse them further.

- Dano Johnson

(Note I did not put that the Muppets rule. That's how serious this is)
:: Dano 9:28 PM [+] ::
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