Griper News: Griper Blade: Propagandist Accuses Journalists of McCarthyism

Poor, put upon Cyrus Nowrasteh. The victim of a massive smear campaign, Cyrus hasn't so much been defending his 'docudrama,' 'The Path to 9/11,' as he's been accusing his detractors of censorship.

Weird, seeing how the thing was aired. Editor & Publisher:

Not content with comparing a New York Times story about him to "McCarthyism," Cyrus Nowrasteh, who wrote the screenplay for the recent ABC docudrama "The Path to 9/11," has now, in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, compared the critics' reaction to the film to a "witch hunt," a "book burning" and "Salem all over again."

What, no comparison to the Holocaust? Guess he hasn't gotten around to it yet.

"...In addition to the death threats and hate mail directed at me, and my grotesque portrayal as a maddened right-winger," he wrote (as reported by NewsBusters.org), "There developed an impassioned search for incriminating evidence on everyone else connected to the film. And in director David Cunningham, the searchers found paydirt! His father had founded a Christian youth outreach mission. The whiff of the younger Mr. Cunningham's possible connection to this enterprise was enough to set the hounds of suspicion baying. A religious mission! A New York Times reporter wrote, without irony or explanation, that an issue that raised questions about the director was his involvement in his father's outreach work. In the era of McCarthyism, the merest hint of a connection to communism sufficed to inspire dark accusations, the certainty that the accused was part of a malign conspiracy. Today, apparently, you can get something of that effect by charging a connection with a Christian mission."

Gosh! What a travesty!

Except, as Justin Rood reported:

The director of ABC's controversial "Path to 9/11" docudrama has ties to an evangelical Christian group whose goals include "transform[ing] Hollywood from the inside out," according to research by readers of prominent blogs.

"Path" director David L. Cunningham is also involved in "The Film Institute," an offshoot of the Hawaii-based global evangelical group, Youth With a Mission.

One goal of Cunningham's Film Institute is to "fast-track" students from a digital film program associated with the YWAM organization into positions "within the film industry, not to give them jobs, but so that they can begin to impact and transform Hollywood from the inside out," according to a cached version of page from a YWAM Web site. The original appears to have been moved or deleted.