This weekend’s “SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden” broadcast on the National Geographic channel, producer Harvey Weinstein’s Hail Mary pass to remind voters of President Barack Obama’s one unabashed triumph, doesn’t tell the whole story.
The America Foundation’s advocacy initiative, Defending Our Democracy, demands the channel air a fair and balanced panel discussion following the 8 p.m. Sunday night broadcast.
“The movie is a blatant, pro-Obama campaign tactic that begs for a response,” according to Tommy Sears, spokesman for Defending Our Democracy. Sears adds the movie doesn’t detail Obama’s own defense secretary and his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff critiquing the administration for “releasing sensitive information.”
“It gave our enemies vital intelligence data and jeopardized the success of future operations as well as the safety of American service personnel,” he says.
The film portrays the president as heroic for triggering the secret operation which led to bin Laden’s death. Sears says Weinstein and his crew received “unprecedented access” to sensitive information during the production process.
He wants Howard Owens, president of National Geographic Channels US, to include clips of Secretary of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen questioning the actions of the Obama White House as part of a post-broadcast panel discussion.