Producer: PBS dropped 'Islam vs. Islamists' on political grounds

[babylonsister]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0410crossroads0410.html

Producer: PBS dropped 'Islam vs. Islamists' on political grounds

Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 10, 2007 12:00 AM

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank.
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"I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds," Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them."

snip//


Jeff Bieber, WETA's executive producer for Crossroads, gave a substantially different explanation. He said Burke's film had "serious structural problems (and) . . . was irresponsible because the writing was alarmist, and it wasn't fair."

"They're crying foul, and there was no foul ball," Bieber added. "The problem is in their film."

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[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. He said he said

Was the film axed because he refused to fire his producers? I'd be more likely to believe it if they were liberals. The writing alarmist and unfair? Who watched it to make that decision?

Bet it gets aired somewhere--this controversy will only arouse interest in the project.

[Chimichurri]

2. It sounds like it was propaganda. I'm glad they cut it.

[Wilber_Stool]

3. Because of some critical hires and fires,

PBS has taken a hard right turn in the last couple of years. I'm not going to dismiss this just because they were form a conservative think tank. I hope it will be shown in a different venue.

[HuffleClaw]

4. sounds to me that a hack job of a 'documentary' ALMOST made it onto PBS

and now they are crying victim. fuck 'em, and fuck their hateful propagandizing.