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Television
investigative journalism is part of the mission of Accuracy in Media, a
Washington based organization headed by Reed Irvine. AIM is a
non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog of the news media that
critiques botched and biased news stories and sets the record straight
on important stories that have received slanted or little if any coverage. The crash of
TWA Flight 800 was just such a story. Many of the eyewitness accounts
were not reported and those that were reported and did not support the
government's conclusion that the plane was brought down by faulty wiring
in the center fuel tank, were discredited and labeled unreliable or
ignored by government officials and the mainstream media.
"The challenge we faced in making this
film was to remain objective in the face of mounting evidence that the
plane was brought down by an external force and was not the result of
mechanical failure," said Roger Aronoff, writer and producer of the
film.
Evidence
of a government cover-up became apparent, such as through the testimony
of Hank Hughes, the National Transportation Safety Board investigator
put in charge of the reconstruction of the plane in a hangar in
Calverton, NY. Hughes testimony before a Senate committee about the
tampering, pounding and complete mishandling of evidence was too
compelling to leave out of the documentary.
Many of the hundreds of people who witnessed
the event were willing to describe what they had seen on camera. We
chose to go with five of the more compelling eyewitnesses, including
Maj. Fred Meyer, a pilot in the Vietnam war, who watched from a National
Guard helicopter during a training mission as a missile, what he called
“ordnance,” headed straight for TWA 800. He describes how the FBI
seemed to have absolutely no interest in hearing his story.
Aronoff
recalls his interview with an Air Traffic Controller who came on duty
shortly after Flight 800 came down on the night of July, 17, 1996. “He
told us that Naval exercises in that area were common, and everyone
there believed it was a Navy missile that brought the plane down. He
even agreed to talk about it. We taped him, but days later he pleaded with us
not to use it in the documentary, because he feared for his job.” The
stories in making this documentary may be a book some day. But for now,
the documentary is plenty powerful on its own. It was named
Best Documentary in the category of TV Investigative Journalism at the
largest film festival in the country.
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