FX's 'Rescue Me' Will Push 9/11 'Inside Job' Conspiracy

February 14th, 2009 3:08 PM

“A coming episode of the acclaimed FX drama Rescue Me will tackle what may sound like a far-fetched plot line: that the attacks of Sept. 11 were an 'inside job,'” Brian Stelter reported in the New York Times, noting the ludicrous plot “may represent the first fictional presentation of 9/11 conspiracy theories by a mainstream media company (FX is operated by the News Corporation).” Actor Daniel Sunjata (IMDB page), who plays New York City firefighter “Franco Rivera” -- and who in a photo with the Times story sported a shirt emblazoned “INVESTIGATE 9/11” -- “predicted that the episode would be 'socio-politically provocative.'”

In the episode, the second in the new season starting in April, “Mr. Sunjata’s character delivers a two-minute monologue for a French journalist describing a 'neoconservative government effort' to control the world’s oil, drastically increase military spending and 'change the definition of pre-emptive attack.' To put it into action, he continues, 'what you need is a new Pearl Harbor. That’s what they said they needed.'” Now that's some crazy paranoia.

Left-wing actor/comedian Denis Leary created Rescue Me (IMDb page) in which he stars as New York City firefighter “Tommy Gavin.” A promo for the new season gives you a flavor of the series in this exchange between “Tommy Gavin” and his teenage daughter “Colleen” as he offers his fatherly advise about another firefighter:  

DAUGHTER COLLEEN: Are you actually telling me to have sex with Sean?

TOMMY GAVIN: No, kinda, you know do the Clinton thing.

DAUGHTER: Oh my God!

More from the short February 2 New York Times article, “The Political Suspicions of 9/11,” by Brian Stelter:

....Mr. Sunjata surprised some of the TV reporters when he said that he “absolutely, 100 percent” supports the assertion that “9/11 was an inside job.”

The alternative theories “seem to me to make a lot more sense than the ones that are popularly espoused,” he said, calling it admirable that the conversation was allowed within “Rescue Me.”

Peter Tolan, an executive producer, said Mr. Sunjata is “well read” and has “done a lot of research.”

“Look, obviously not all of us buy in,” he told reporters. “But we went: ‘Wow, that’s interesting, and he’s passionate about it. Let’s use that.’”...