Earlier this week, we discussed Spike Lee’s interview in the New York Times, which was done to promote his HBO docu-series, NYC Epicenters: 9/11-2021½. Spike focused on September 11th, the day and the aftermath, and combined those stories with New York stories about the pandemic. Spike probably expected the controversy to be about the NYPD and the footage he included about police busting heads during BLM rallies. But during the NYT interview, Spike explained why he included 9/11 “Truthers” in the docu-series. Truthers are people who believe that 9/11 was an inside job, that there’s a massive government conspiracy to cover up blah blah blah. Spike told the NYT that he still has “questions” about how the towers fell, and that’s why he included interviews with Truthers in the series. The outrage and anger has been stewing online for days. And Spike heard it and saw it.
Director Spike Lee is reediting the fourth and final episode of his “NYC Epicenters: 9/11-2021½” docuseries on HBO. The original cut of the episode featured interviews with 9/11 truthers.
“I’m Back In The Editing Room And Looking At The Eighth And Final Chapter Of ‘NYC EPICENTERS 9/11-2021½.’ I Respectfully Ask You To Hold Your Judgement Until You See The FINAL CUT,” Lee said in a statement sent by HBO.
The decision to reedit the episode comes after Lee said in an interview with the New York Times that he still had “questions” about what happened on 9/11. In the original cut distributed to press, the fourth and final episode of the docuseries contained interviews with 9/11 truthers and members of the conspiracy group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
The next two episodes of “NYC Epicenters: 9/11-2021½” will air on HBO on Sunday, Aug. 29, and Sunday, Sept. 5, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT. The reedited final episode will air on Saturday, Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Can you imagine how disrespectful it would be to the 9/11 families to have the final episodes of a docu-series air on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, and have those episodes perpetuate the falsehoods about how the towers fell? This was so poorly done by Spike. He’s smarter than that. HBO is smarter than that. I hate that he’s back in his editing bay, recutting the final episodes to take out some of the crazy sh-t from those Truthers. I hate that he even included them in the first place.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
If you have questions about how the towers fell perhaps ask some structural engineers and not randoms who were indoctrinated by YouTube
One of my “favorite” traveling memories includes a German 9/11 truther.
We had stopped in Germany overnight on our roadtrip back to the UK from Austria, since an old high school friend of mine was performing in a circus as a trapeze artist and she had gotten us free tickets. I stayed out to hang out with her and catch up, but ended up getting locked out of my hotel when we parted ways. I couldn’t reach my travel buddies who went back to the hotel early, so I went back to the closed restaurant and hung out with the workers who were waiting for their trains while trying to figure out what to do. All the workers were middle eastern and spoke very little English, except one German dude. It was early AM and we had been talking to pass the time while he waited for his train. He seemed normal enough until he asked about what I thought about 9/11 because he wanted an American’s POV. And then he went full truther on me.
The other workers who had been sitting with us obviously knew what he was talking about and threw me pitying looks as this guy just wouldn’t shut up about it. This was apparently nothing new here. I kept neutral because I was alone in a country I wasn’t familar with, where I couldn’t get to where I needed to be, but finally was to able to claim I was too tired to talk about the subject, since it was around 2am. And his train finally came by. I left shortly after to try to get back into my hotel and was finally able to reach my travel buddies to get inside.
It was pretty surreal.
9/11 Truthers drive me crazy because they show such minimal understanding of the basics.
-towers are built to withstand non moving vertical force, not massive sideways/twisting forces, just like ladders.
– taking out supports like the impact did means that the falling material accelerates down with much bigger force than the supports below can withstand. (aka buildings are built to handle large non-moving forces (static energy) but not much moving force (kinetic energy) Its how/why controlled demolitions work too
– Jet fuel burns super hot. Magnesium burns far hotter, there are BIG aircraft parts made of solid magnesium for strength/weight benefits. Think landing gear, engine casings, stuff like that. I’ve worked with people who manufacture these parts. If the magnesium shavings heat and catch fire? They will melt the cutting machine they’re sitting on right into the ground. It will burn concrete and melt steel.
TLDR: the general population really needs far more physics education. FAR more
Thank you 🙏🏻
When you put your comment into the broader context it is amazing the audacity, arrogance and gall of people with zero knowledge, experience and expertise to contradict or criticize something like 9/11 or the COVID vaccine. To say scientists, researchers, physicists, epidemiologists, doctors, engineers, etc don’t know everything, or that you do because, you, know, you have questions…
The sad thing is, there are waaaaaaay more uneducated out here than educated. Way more inexperienced than experienced. And all these people have a very large platform to show and spread their ignorance.
We may be screwed people.
I guess I will have to go back and read what all the doc entails because I don’t understand the uproar before the thing is actually released. Including truthers could be a way to have a well-rounded discussion around the events and have an expert to debunk the idiotic conspiracies. I’ll judge after I see it.
The fact that he was lowkey identifying himself as a truther in his original comments pretty much guarantees there wouldn’t be any experts debunking them.
– “Because I still don’t … I mean, I got questions. And I hope that maybe the legacy of this documentary is that Congress holds a hearing, a congressional hearing about 9/11….The amount of heat that it takes to make steel melt, that temperature’s not reached. And then the juxtaposition of the way Building 7 fell to the ground — when you put it next to other building collapses that were demolitions, it’s like you’re looking at the same thing. But people going to make up their own mind.” –
No, including the ill-informed/uninformed opinions of conspiracy-nutjobs does not equal a well-rounded discussion.
I’ve never heard a reasonable Reuther argument. If he found someone with legitimate questions and/or raised the most prevalent theories and debunked them, I would be ok with it. But if he’s going to do a both sided thing….no
Is there a difference between building truthers and “it was an inside job” truthers?
No
I am not big on conspiracy theories people take these theories as truth. The conspiracy theories surrounding the towers has always seemed too out there for me. So, I get why people are anger about including “truthers”. Like I’d be pissed if they included these fools in a doc about Sandy hook.
That said, I have never been satisfied with the facts behind the Pentagon attack. Not one photo? The only confirmed eye witness interview is conveniently a priest because no one would call him a liar, right? The plane was completely vaporized but the surroundings don’t support this? No security camera or tourist video? The photos they release years later look like a perfectly set up movie set with a seat here and piece of wing there (look at them and tell me that looks like a plane hit it).
There is a lot more to this. Sure, it is possible that it wasn’t an inside job, but I also think we aren’t getting a smidge of truth about what hit the pentagon and why.
Dear lord, I sound crazy. I can’t help it, the Pentagon stuff is way too fishy.
Yeah that does sound crazy. There are many witnesses and in depth investigations as to what happened at the Pentagon, maybe educate yourself a little more rigorously on that.
oh boy, here we go.
I’ve been a fan of Spike since She’s Gotta Have It, and he’s always been down with conspiracy theories and nuttiness in general. He’s incredibly talented with deep insight, but also an ego which leaves him open to thinking he’s smarter than he is.
I’ve always loved Spike and I always will. A humanist, an artist, a never-give-up speaker of truth. You are the best, Spike!