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Obama Rodeo Clown 'Outrage' Flashback: CNN Promotes Bush Assassination Movie For Free!

by Jack Flash

Aug 13, 2013 Jack Flash

Excerpted from NewsBusters, October 27, 2006: CNN's "American Morning" devoted four minutes of air time, and free advertising, to a faux documentary that includes a digitally created assassination of George W. Bush. The network, which has refused to air commercials for the controversial "Death of a President," instead featured the film's director on the Friday edition of its morning show. Anchor Miles O'Brien opened the interview with some free promotion in the form of a 13 second clip of the movie. The film's director, Gabriel Range, certainly understood the benefit of what a CNN appearance offered him. He explained late in the interview:

Miles O'Brien: "Some of these theaters that have said no to your film, in the end, all the buzz surrounding this, I guess that might be good for business, huh?"Gabriel Range: "I think the distributor, New Market, are keen to — they've got the film out in a lot of theaters. And they're very confident that it will reach a wide audience. I hope the fact you and I are talking about it today will mean that a lot of people will want to see the film. I would say, it's not what you think. Judge it for yourself."

For a movie that centers around the murder of the President of the United Staes, O'Brien's tone throughout the interview was extremely mild and genial. His first query during the segment, which aired at 8:53a.m., seems to fit the definition of a softball question:

O'Brien: "A controversial new film, a faux documentary, portrays the fictional assassination of President George Bush. "The Death of a President" opens in U.S. theaters on Friday. But some theater chains are refusing to show the film."

(13 second video clip of "Death of a President") O'Brien: "Gabriel Range is the director of the film. He joins us now. Good to have you with us, Gabriel."

Range: "Good to be here."

O'Brien: "Why did you make this movie?"

Range: "I think imagining the assassination of President Bush just struck me as being a very potent and very striking way of posing some questions about the way the war on terror has been handled, about some of the consequences of, of the last five years, really."

The CNN anchor then shifted the discussion to one of the film's plot points, a subplot which seemed to implicate Dick Cheney in some nefarious act: Keep reading

Obama Rodeo Clown 'Outrage' Flashback: CNN Promotes Bush Assassination Movie For Free!
http://patdollard.com/2013/08/obama-rodeo-clown-outrage-flashback-cnn-promotes-bush-assassination-movie-for-free/

John Hames