Clarifying the record on PBS series
"Islam vs. Islamists: Voices From the Muslim Center," a film I produced and directed and that was dropped from the PBS series "America at a Crossroads," was never politically driven or agenda-driven in its content or its production until PBS and its affiliate WETA took over the series and consistently attempted to portray it as such.
Leo Eaton's Saturday letter, "Failure to make the PBS cut," was written in response to Wednesday's Page One article "PBS shelves film on moderate Muslims." Mr. Eaton's letter ignores the fact that within weeks of taking over the series, he and Jeff Bieber, the WETA team, flew to Toronto to meet me in March 2006.
The sole purpose of this meeting appeared to be to demand that I fire my co-producers, Frank Gaffney and Alex Alexiev, for their political beliefs.
It was in that meeting that I heard the rather amazing question: "Don't you check into the politics of the people you work with?" As someone who once made a film titled "The Hollywood Ten — a History of Politics in Filmmaking" and who had spent time with blacklisted screenwriters and directors, I was stunned to find myself being asked that question.
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1 comment:
Will this important documentary ever see the light-of-day, or will PBS archive it in some "Raiders of the Lost Ark"-like labyrinth for unPC productions?
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