Variations On A Theme
Discussion abounds re the lack of historical validity (although it’s being sold as a historical account) of the forthcoming ABC drama about 9/11 and the motivations behind this blatant exercise in historical revisionism that’s worthy of Brezhnev.
I’ll leave the arguing about that to others more interested and more capable. What popped out at me from Digby’s posts about it was that one of the documentary’s progenitors, an ABC spokesmodel, was appointed Los Angeles’ Head of Counterterrorism.
WTF?
That one slipped under my radar, but then there’s so many of these wtf moments nowadays it’s hard to keep up.
If it wasn’t enough that some unqualified media muppet had been appointed over the heads of career police officers, the overpromoted PR airhead and anti-terrorism chief in question then proceeded to take a gun on a plane:
Miller, the ex-ABC reporter who chief William Bratton found a $157,000-a-year job at the LAPD ? as anti-terrorism boss and head of the Critical Incident Management Bureau, despite no cop experience ? has enough trouble being taken seriously by LAPD officers and by journalists in town. On Thursday, his burden got heavier. He was stopped at LAX with a loaded gun in his computer bag and briefly detained before boarding a flight to New York with his wife and child. The LAPD-issued .38 and a license to carry it are two of the perks Bratton gifted Miller with to go with the job. (Miller was Bratton’s PR spokesman back at the NYPD). Miller was allowed to go ahead and fly to New York to celebrate Barbara Walters’ retirement, but he may face a fine and the wrath of his sponsor. At an evening press conference, Bratton said:
I talked to John when he was on the plane, and he was incredibly embarrassed for himself, for his family and for the department. Apparently, he was moving things around from one case to another when he was packing and he forgot the gun was there.”
He gets the gun back when he returns. But if you’re inclined to forget where you put a loaded handgun, should you really be one of only about 100 civilian Angelenos licensed to carry one? The chief quipped, “I’m confident that he did not try to smuggle a weapon on the plane, that he and his family did not plan to hijack a plane and fly off to Cuba or something.”
L.A. Times, L.A. Daily News, N.Y. Daily News, N.Y. Post
[…]
After showering himself in ignominy for a few years here in LA, he is now doing PR for the FBI. He is a member of the Bush Adminstration. You can see why ABC isn’t advertising the fact that their soap opera is partly based on his work.
What was it I was just saying about the PR industry? Ah yes, that public relations, the media and the Republican party are essentially the same hydra-headed animal.
The Miller thing just goes to show they don’t even try to dissemble any more.
Read more: Homeland Security, War On Terrorism, Los Angeles, LAPD, ABC, Documentaries, 9/11 Anniversary
