Why is there so little controversy over the new HBO movie "Recount" which airs tonight, that aims to mislead the public into believing Al Gore won the presidency in 2000, when every recount (even the liberal media’s) found otherwise? Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz offered one reason in the Saturday paper: "The makers of 'Recount' tout their reliance on several books about the crisis, and hired as consultants CNN's Jeffrey Toobin, ABC's Jake Tapper, Time's Mark Halperin and David Von Drehle and Newsweek's David Kaplan."
Tapper, one of the consultants, told Kurtz the film is "a fictional version of what happened" and "tilts to the left because it's generally told from the point of view of the Democrats." But, he says, while some scenes and language are manufactured, "a lot of dialogue is not invented, a lot of dialogue is taken from my book, other books and real life."
Kurtz took up the story to outline the pitfalls in "docudrama," which gives the viewer the feeling of history – but with scenes and dialogue often invented. He focused on former Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Gore aide Ron Klain liked the film, but found "Secretary Christopher comes across as kind of naive and out of touch, and he wasn't. It makes Christopher look like an idiot, and he wasn't. It's just not right."
Klain and former Bush I Secretary of State Baker were among those given a chance to review the script and request changes, some of which were accepted. Kurtz said Baker was portrayed as "canny and ruthless," basically the villain of the piece, but get this: "Baker, by contrast, was so pleased with the product that he is hosting a screening next week at his public policy institute in Houston."
