TVSquad

Fox Newschannel has gotten its hands on some footage from the ABC fictional mini-series, The Path to 9/11, and is planning to air it tonight. The mini-series, you may remember, aired back in September and had members of the Clinton administration pretty ticked off because the script essentially blamed them for 9/11 because they failed to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Edits were made before it reached air.

But now Sean Hannity will air some of the original content on his program tonight at 9 pm. Fox got the footage by recording video of an unedited scene that producer Cyrus Nowrasteh played during a speech at California State University earlier this month. Fox will air the scene and interview Nowrasteh, with the reasoning that the American public deserves to see what the Clinton administration was opposed to.

If it were the other way around and the Bush administration had pressured ABC to change its script, do you think Hannity would still air it?

TVNewser posted what looks like a pretty awful typo on Monday's edition of CNN's The Situation Room: a picture of al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri and a cut-out in the shape of Osama bin Laden. The headline next to that picture is "Where's Obama?"

Obama? It may be a slip of the keyboard, but putting a picture of al-Qaeda and the name of the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, together, seems like it would be sort of a Freudian slip, don't you think? For one thing, "B" and "S" aren't close to each other on a computer keyboard, and for another thing, the potential presidential candidate has been accused of being associated with radical Islamic militants. Anyway, Raw Story has the entire sequece of events, including Wolf Blitzer's on-air apology to Obama (the video of which is at Crooks and Liars). If I were Bob, I'd say something like this: "This would be something I'd expect from Fox News, not CNN," but I'm not, so I won't.

[via Lost Remote]

"Mess O' Potamia... Now with More Mess!": According to a recent intelligence assessment, the war in Iraq has actually heightened Islamic radicalism, thereby making the terrorism issue worse. "Remember, it's a US intelligence report... Take it with a grain of salt." I remember liking the Clinton/Lonelygirl15 joke, but I forgot what it was about because, immediately after hearing the joke, I had to explain to my oblivious roommate who Lonelygirl15 actually is (if you're clueless too, check this out).

This Wednesday, CNN is broadcasting a two-hour special hosted by Christiane Amanpour that will track Osama Bin Laden from his early days to his current status as the world's most wanted terrorist leader. Normally I don't bother with basic cable news coverage, but I like Amanpour as a reporter, and based on the clips on the Web page for In the Footsteps of Bin Laden, this looks like it might be quite informative and interesting. Amanpour and her crew traveled to ten countries on four different continents in order to follow Bin Laden's journey, and, little surprise, trying to get coverage and speak to those close to the man wasn't without its dangerous moments. The special will air August 23 at 9 pm.

I think the requirement to get your own reality show is that you have one mildly interesting thing about you. For instance, Wafah Dofour bin Laden happens to be Osama bin Laden's niece. Of course, she's never actually met the criminal mastermind. She's an American who was born in California, lived in Saudi Arabia from age three to 10, and has a master's degree in law from Columbia University. She's putting that degree to work by trying to launch a career in music and has already received headlines for her provocative photos in GQ Magazine last December. The producers of the reality series say it'll be about her "quest for stardom", but they also claim she'll be bridging the gap between cultures.

Wafah Dofour has actually dropped the last name 'bin Laden', for obvious reasons. But, she also is obviously exploiting her blood relative because, why else would this chick get her own reality show? Sure, she's hot. But that's only grounds for a guest appearance on Fear Factor.

[Photo from GQ Magazine]

Ahnold Swahzennegah can do absolutely anything and defeat absolutely anyone... in the movies, anyway. In real life, he can't tackle an overpass without getting fifteen stitches. "I'll be bahck... to get my stitches out next Tuesday... Till then, I'm not allowed to swim..." A picture of Arnold popped up behind Jon with the words "It is not a tumor!" across it. I think this was the first time in a long time that I actually laughed out loud at one of the image jokes. Still makes me giggle... hee.

It's been four and a half years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I don't know about you, but I still get a little emotional when I think too hard about how that morning unfolded. But, if you're interested in looking back at it from a journalistic point of view, here is a good place to do it.

The non-profit television library called The Television Archive has amassed Canadian and American media coverage of that morning over a 15-minute time period from when the first plane hit, through the second plane hitting the towers, and to the first reports of a third plane hitting the Pentagon. You can see how the news outlets responded, who got it right, who got it first, and who, initially, got it totally wrong. For example, Charlie Gibson of Good Morning America, remained totally calm as he reported what he was seeing. While Bryant Gumbel, who was at The Early Show on CBS at the time, saw phantom planes after the first two crashed into the towers, and he got all panicky on air. The entire video montage is about 30 minutes, but you may have to wait a few days to watch it, because now the website is timing out, probably from so much traffic.

[Via Digg]