CBS delivered contrasting conclusions in their two stories: With Obama, stressing his rebuke of his critics; with Cheney, emphasizing his unpopularity. Chip Reid ended his report on Obama by relaying Obama’s charge that “opponents of closing Guantanamo Bay are using the politics of fear,” but, moments later, Bill Plante concluded his look at former VP Cheney’s address on fighting terrorism by highlighting “Republicans who fear that the high-profile criticism coming from someone as unpopular as Cheney isn’t helping their party.” The two conclusions on the May 21 CBS Evening News:

Chip Reid: “The President said opponents of closing Guantanamo Bay are using the politics of fear and he promised it will be closed.”

Bill Plante: “The former Vice President has made it clear that he intends to continue speaking out, ignoring Republicans who fear that the high-profile criticism coming from someone as unpopular as Cheney isn’t helping their party.”

On the NBC Nightly News, Williams set up Andrea Mitchell to recount Cheney’s supposed hypocrisy and errors before he raised Cheney’s detractors:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Andrea, you and I spoke earlier today. You concentrated on the Vice President’s speech and, specifically, I heard you say some patterns in the way he delivered it.

MITCHELL: Well, for one thing, the Vice President cast himself as the chief defender of the CIA, which is an irony because all during the Bush years, he was a great attacker inside fighting all the time with the CIA. He did say that water-boarding was only used as a last choice when there was no other alternative. That was not the case with Abu Zubayda. He was water-boarded 83 times, producing no actionable intelligence. He did manage, though, to elevate himself into the chief sparring partner with the President of the United States. That’s quite a political achievement. And as Chuck [Todd] was pointing out, the President failed to put out this firestorm [on closing Guantanamo] because his allies on the Hill still say he has not given them the details that they want.

WILLIAMS: And to David Gregory. David, it was clear today, we heard from the President, we’re going to hear these talking points over and over. The mistake isn’t closing it, it was opening it in the first place, we’re cleaning up a mess here. But on the other side, do the Republicans think they have found an issue, and is everybody happy with their messenger here?

DAVID GREGORY: Not everybody’s happy with the messenger, but it is interesting. A lot of Republicans I spoke to today said there was a rallying cry from Dick Cheney, a message to conservatives and to Republicans. This is the issue that we can win politically and we can win substantively, that this administration doesn’t have its head on right with regard to the national security of the country. There’s also legacy building here, and Dick Cheney is the one at the moment, not former President Bush, to begin the argument. And that is there was not a follow-on attack after 9/11 on the United States. That’s where the Bush/Cheney team would like the legacy to be built.

Though the ballot initiatives turned down by voters on Tuesday involved raising and/or extending an income tax surcharge, the sales tax and the tax on cars, Lewis euphemistically described them as “a series of ballot measures, backed by [Governor Arnold] Schwarzenegger, aimed at easing the deficit.” Lewis concentrated on potential victims: “$5.3 billion would come out of education in the Governor’s proposed budget, $2 billion from health programs and hundreds of millions from the state’s prison system” while a college student, Lewis paraphrased, complained they “are in a bind as California hikes fees to make ends meet.”

Like Marquez on Tuesday’s World News, Lewis ignored how taxes and spending have spiraled upward in recent years. Though personal income tax collections “dropped 14% last year,” a Tuesday Wall Street Journal article noted they “soared 70% from 2002 to 2007.” And columnist George Will pointed out in a May 3 column that the state government has hardly been starving for money: “If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit.” In addition, in Arnold “Schwarzenegger’s less than six years as Governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent.”

From the Wednesday, May 20 NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Now to the American west we go and huge problems for the most populous state in the country. California is pretty much insolvent. $21 billion in the red with depressed tax revenue and bigger expenses because of this recession. Last night, voters said "no" to a plan to try to close this gap. Our own George Lewis has our report.

GEORGE LEWIS: 38 million Californians woke up this morning with their state $21 billion in the red. A big defeat for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in Washington trying to nail down stimulus money from the Obama administration. Voters yesterday turned down a series of ballot measures, backed by Schwarzenegger, aimed at easing the deficit.

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: So there was a clear "no" on all of those issues and so now we have to recognize that and move forward and make all of the changes through cuts.

LEWIS: $5.3 billion would come out of education in the Governor’s proposed budget, $2 billion from health programs and hundreds of millions from the state’s prison system. To further plug the holes in the budget, the state may have to sell off a number of landmark properties including this one, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Also, the San Quentin state prison, the Del Mar fair grounds near San Diego and the Cow Place arena south of San Francisco. Part of California’s problem is that it takes a two-thirds vote in the state legislature to raise taxes, while voters oppose any cuts in services.

BRUCE CAIN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY: Now, with this cataclysmic economic decline we just have a combination that is just unimaginably bad.

LEWIS: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates in 2010, 47 states will fae deficits totaling $145 billion. Curtis Schlaufman, student body president at Cal State University-Fullerton says students are in a bind as California hikes fees to make ends meet.

CURTIS SCHLAUFMAN: Right I have a part-time job, so I might have to find another part-time job just to be able to afford to pay for my schooling and my books.

LEWIS: This as the fiscal crisis in California and elsewhere deepens. George Lewis, NBC News, Los Angeles.

In the story pegged to Tuesday’s vote on a series of initiatives to raise or extend an income-tax surcharge, a big hike in the car tax and one point sales tax jump to 9 percent, Marquez fretted that “polls show five of six initiatives aimed at reducing the budget gap are likely to be voted down,” leading Schwarzenegger, Marquez relayed, to warn “the defeat of these measures will mean billions of dollars in cuts to social services and education, and will force thousands of layoffs from the state rolls.” From San Francisco, Marquez rued:

Coast to coast, state governments are swimming in red ink, overwhelmed by the tanking economy. Here in California, the problem is even worse because of its sheer size and an unwillingness to raise taxes. Thirty years ago, Californians passed Proposition 13, mandating an almost unachievable two-thirds vote by the legislature to raise taxes.

Viewers then heard from a UC-Berkeley professor who complained about the impediments to raising taxes: “California preferences for spending are we want lots of things, we want it all, but we’ve put in place a decision-making system that prevents us from raising the revenue to pay for that.”

Columnist George Will, a regular on ABC’s own This Week, pointed out in a May 3 column what Marquez omitted — that the state government has hardly been starving for money: “If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit.” In addition, in Arnold “Schwarzenegger’s less than six years as Governor, per capita government spending, adjusted for inflation, has increased nearly 20 percent.”

The MRC’s Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video to provide this transcript of the story on the Tuesday, May 19 edition of ABC’s World News:

CHARLES GIBSON: In California today, voters went to the polls for the twelfth time in just seven years to vote on proposals to make up a budget deficit that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has estimated could grow to $21 billion. The government has warned of dire consequences if the proposals fail, and it appears they will fail. Here’s Laura Marquez.
            
LAURA MARQUEZ: If Californians once lived the epitome of the American dream, they now find themselves in the midst of a budget nightmare. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature are looking to voters to fix it, and the voters are blaming lawmakers.

NOEL RAGSDALE, CALIFORNIA VOTER: They should, you know, take responsibility for their votes instead of dumping it off onto the voters.

MARQUEZ: Polls show five of six initiatives aimed at reducing the budget gap are likely to be voted down. The exception? One that denies raises to lawmakers in deficit years. The governor warns the defeat of these measures will mean billions of dollars in cuts to social services and education, and will force thousands of layoffs from the state rolls.

ELIZABETH LEWIS, TEACHER: I’m worried about, am I going to be able to pay my bills next year?

MARQUEZ: Coast to coast, state governments are swimming in red ink, overwhelmed by the tanking economy. Here in California, the problem is even worse because of its sheer size and an unwillingness to raise taxes. Thirty years ago, Californians passed Proposition 13, mandating an almost unachievable two-thirds vote by the legislature to raise taxes.

PROFESSOR JOHN ELLWOOD, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY: California preferences for spending are we want lots of things, we want it all, but we’ve put in place a decision-making system that prevents us from raising the revenue to pay for that.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER IN CLIP FROM TERMINATOR:  I’ll be back.

SCHWARZENEGGER SPEAKING AT A GRADUATION CEREMONY: I’ll be back.

MARQUEZ: A system so entrenched it seems to have rendered the action hero turned governor powerless.

PHIL BRONSTEIN, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: What he brought to Sacramento was this power of celebrity. And I think he was counting on that to bend the molecules in the state house.

MARQUEZ: Even if voters were to pass the governor’s slate of budget propositions, California will still be $15 billion in the hole. Laura Marquez, ABC News, San Francisco.

Then, on Monday’s CBS Evening News, she portrayed America as in such a bad way that it reminded her of the Great Depression, asserting the impact of the recession “may be” to children “what the depression was to an earlier generation.” In a story on the “Safe Families for Children” program that helps overwhelmed families hand their kids temporarily to other families, Couric raised the most ominous comparison: “Volunteer families stepping in during tough times is reminiscent of the Great Depression when parents in dire straits sent their children to live with relatives or other people in the community.”

In the May 18 USA today op-ed, “The recession’s tiniest victims need help, too,” Couric denigrated the kind of news she’s presented as dealing with “things and places that are cold, vague, incomprehensible” (quite an endorsement for her newscast!), before pivoting to how the real news is an anecdote-based recounting of the plight of a few kids:

A police officer in Chicago noticed a small child with swollen feet. The family had been riding trains and walking all day because they had nowhere else to go. He took the mother and her two girls to a shelter….

For months, journalists have reported on the housing crisis, the collapse of financial institutions, the stock market’s freefall, the stimulus package, the AIG bonuses and the economy’s hemorrhaging of jobs. Things and places that are cold, vague, incomprehensible.

But the real gut-wrenching stories of the economic downturn reach well beyond the offices of Wall Street or the corridors of power in Washington. You see, the collateral damage of this recession is felt by our smallest, and weakest, citizens our children. It’s felt by a 5-year-old girl with swollen, bloody feet….

Couric soon wondered:

So how will the children living through this struggle be defined? Every generation gets a label. I’m a Baby Boomer. My parents come from the Silent Generation, and my youngest daughter, Carrie, is a Gen Z kid who is anything but silent. Those definitions usually are derived from the environment that shapes us as we come of age.

I wonder what today’s children will be called if this recession has a lasting impact on their lives. Will they be the Recession Generation? In some ways, I think they already are.

In Phoenix, Children’s Hospital reports a 40% increase in child abuse and neglect cases this year. In Cleveland, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital has seen more middle-class families turning to the emergency room for basic health care because their children are uninsured.

Such stories of despair are repeated in cities from coast to coast….

An ancient Chinese proverb says, "One generation plants trees, the next gets shade." The character-defining lessons these children are learning, with the right guidance, can mold them into strong and sensible adults and even, perhaps, recalibrate their values in a culture that seems to have gone off-course. The Greatest Generation, as Tom Brokaw has called it, lived through the Great Depression and developed a foundation of family and core values that still support this nation today.

There are signs, we’re told, that perhaps the worst is behind us, that our economy is on the mend. I hope that’s the case. But a bull market or a bounce in our 401(k)s won’t heal Isabel’s [5-year-old] sore feet or give children the health care and education they need. That has to come from caring people who realize that if we don’t start planting trees now, these innocent victims could become the Lost Generation desperately in need of some shade.

And it sound like, Suzanne, this is a very courageous move. And I wonder if the President or if the White House in any way conveyed to you whether there was a lot of angst that the President had leading up to this commencement speech knowing about how much had been said leading up to this day and whether there was angst on his part about whether he wanted to make his commencement speech one that would use the words abortion, that would use the words embryonic stem cell research as opposed to focusing primarily on a challenge for the future because so often that’s what commencement speeches do?

From CNN, at 2 PM EDT:

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, IN SOUTH BEND: We have gotten an advanced copy, Fred, of the text, the speech. It’s obviously embargoed until he delivers it. But broadly speaking, we can say that he will address this controversy, that he is not going to shy away from it. That he will talk about the need for people to be open minded, to be fair minded in the way that they approach the debate over abortion and stem cell research, that he will talk about an example of perhaps a gay activist as well as a priest. Both of them feeling that they want to combat and tackle HIV/AIDS but have a different way of looking at that point of view, whether it’s expanding stem cell research or if it is opposing that. He’ll also take on the issue of abortion. Talking about — that, in some ways, there’s a need to emphasize the commonality of both sides, but that in some ways these two camps are irreconcilable when it comes to ultimately what they think about a woman’s right to choose. So this is something, Fred, that he is going to tackle as part of the commencement speech and he’ll obviously talk about the challenges that these students have at this preeminent Catholic university.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: And it sound like, Suzanne, this is a very courageous move. And I wonder if the President or if the White House in any way conveyed to you whether there was a lot of angst that the President had leading up to this commencement speech knowing about how much had been said leading up to this day and whether there was angst on his part about whether he wanted to make his commencement speech one that would use the words abortion, that would use the words embryonic stem cell research as opposed to focusing primarily on a challenge for the future because so often that’s what commencement speeches do?

MALVEAUX: Sure, well, this was — the President, obviously in a position that he had to address the issue. This has become such a hot button issue, obviously, on this campus the last couple of weeks….

That was enough of a news hook for ABC’s World News to make it the Friday night lead, as fill-in anchor George Stephanopoulos teased his top story: “Tonight, firing back: The CIA Director toe-to-toe with the Speaker. He says Congress was told the truth about interrogations.” Reporter Jonathan Karl recounted how Panetta is “pushing back hard against the Speaker of the House” and that Republicans are raising her hypocrisy in advocating punishment for those who authorized a technique of which she was aware.

He concluded by undermining her latest spin of claiming she was misled by Bush administration political operatives.

“Speaker Pelosi is now doing some damage control,” Karl reported, reading her assertion: “My criticism of the manner of which the Bush administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community who work to keep our country safe.” But, Karl noted: “It is important to point out that those who briefed Speaker Pelosi at that September [2002] briefing were career intelligence officers, these were not political operatives from the Bush administration.”

Yet not even that mendacious blame-shifting prompted a syllable from CBS or NBC. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when the newscast anchored by a former Democratic political operative is the one willing to highlight news deleterious to a top liberal Democrat.

With Jeff Glor in the anchor seat on Thursday, CBS, like ABC and NBC, aired full stories on Pelosi’s accusations against the CIA. (For a rundown of Thursday night and Friday morning Pelosi coverage by ABC, CBS and NBC, check the earlier NB post by Rich Noyes: “After Three Weeks, Pelosi’s Anti-CIA Rant Pushes Nets to Action.”)

Katie Couric was back in the anchor chair on Friday, however, and the newscast skipped Pelosi’s evolving explanations about what she knew when and Panetta’s rejoinder. The CBS Evening News led with GM’s dealer closings and devoted nearly four minutes to Couric previewing/plugging her upcoming Sunday 60 Minutes segment with Secretary of Defense Bill Gates and spent two minutes on how the favorite in Saturday’s Preakness is a female — and that was all before the closing story on the proper pronunciation and spelling of Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster, Massachusetts.

The Lester Holt-anchored NBC Nightly News, which had transmission problems in its 7 PM EDT feed so 10-20 second chunks of it did not air in Washington, DC (but I saw no hint of anything about Pelosi), did run an unusual story on the plight of Christians in Iraq, but also allocated two minutes to plugging a prime time documentary on the dying Farrah Fawcett and, like CBS, featured a full piece on the Preakness. Also, matching CBS, NBC began with GM.

Washington Post:

Immigrant Homeownership Proves Resilient in the Face of Slowdown
Boosted by Boom, Rate Virtually Unchanged During Bust

Lead: “The rate of homeownership in the United States is holding up better among immigrants than it is for native-born Americans, according to a study released yesterday.”

Wall Street Journal:

Housing Boom Aided Minorities
Homeownership Reached Record Levels, Narrowing the Gap With Whites

Lead: “Minorities in the U.S. increased their levels of homeownership at a faster clip than whites during the recent housing boom, according to a new report, and narrowed the ownership gap with the majority despite taking a bigger hit during the subsequent bust.”

New York Times:

Homeownership Losses Are Greatest Among Minorities, Report Finds

Lead: “After a decade of growth, the gains made in homeownership by African-Americans and native-born Latinos have been eroding faster in the economic downturn than those of whites, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.”

As the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto observed in his May 13 “Best of the Web Today” compilation:

Policies designed to increase homeownership rates among minorities succeeded — and…some of that success has proved durable. But the cost of this success was to help undermine the entire financial system. The Times portrays this as another story of “world ends; minorities hardest hit,” but it’s really more “minorities benefit, world hardest hit.”

Washington Post:

Immigrant Homeownership Proves Resilient in the Face of Slowdown
Boosted by Boom, Rate Virtually Unchanged During Bust

Lead: “The rate of homeownership in the United States is holding up better among immigrants than it is for native-born Americans, according to a study released yesterday.”

Wall Street Journal:

Housing Boom Aided Minorities
Homeownership Reached Record Levels, Narrowing the Gap With Whites

Lead: “Minorities in the U.S. increased their levels of homeownership at a faster clip than whites during the recent housing boom, according to a new report, and narrowed the ownership gap with the majority despite taking a bigger hit during the subsequent bust.”

New York Times:

Homeownership Losses Are Greatest Among Minorities, Report Finds

Lead: “After a decade of growth, the gains made in homeownership by African-Americans and native-born Latinos have been eroding faster in the economic downturn than those of whites, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.”

As the Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto observed in his May 13 “Best of the Web Today” compilation:

Policies designed to increase homeownership rates among minorities succeeded — and…some of that success has proved durable. But the cost of this success was to help undermine the entire financial system. The Times portrays this as another story of “world ends; minorities hardest hit,” but it’s really more “minorities benefit, world hardest hit.”

Discussing 9/11 with firefighter “Tommy Gavin,” played by show creator Denis Leary, “Genevieve” agreed “9/11 was a tragedy. To most of the world it was a tragedy,” but she fretted, “to Americans, it was the beginning of the end of the world.” As the two walked along a Manhattan street following a visit to Ground Zero, she lectured, presumably alluding to Iraq: “France warned the U.S. government because of their experience with Algeria. And then told them that maybe this was not a good idea and they didn’t want to send their people to die.” As to why she wants to write about 9/11:

It’s an amazing story, it’s a story about how so many people in the world came to support America and its people, to say, “hey, you know what? You’ve done so much to help us and to support us, we want to give back to you.” But what did your government do with all that good will? Hell, you went right back to war. You started two new wars. In the name of what? Revenge?…Every goddamn war is about revenge — and the French don’t believe in guns.

To which, Gavin zinged: “Or soap.”

Audio: MP3 clip (2:20, 900 Kb)

My April 15 NewsBusters item, “FX’s ‘Rescue Me’ Pushes 9/11 as ‘Massive Neo-Conservative’ Conspiracy,” recounted:

The 9/11 terrorist attacks were part of “a massive neo-conservative government effort” to enable “American global domination,” a character on FX’s "Rescue Me" argued on Tuesday night’s episode. In the drama about firefighters in New York City, firefighter “Franco Rivera,” played by actor Daniel Sunjata, a real-life 9/11 “truther,” laid out his theory for a French journalist interviewing firefighters for a book on 9/11 first-responders. As noted in a February NewsBusters post, in a New York Times story about the then-upcoming storyline, Brian Stelter reported the ludicrous theory “may represent the first fictional presentation of 9/11 conspiracy theories by a mainstream media company (FX is operated by the News Corporation).”

During the episode, “Franco” outlined the four-point plan by the Project for a New American Century, starting with how Bush-Cheney “came to power with plans already made to attack Afghanistan and Iraq.” Second, “we have to make huge technological advances with our armed forces, that for some reason include the capability to fight wars from outer space.” Third, “huge increases in military spending” to the neglect of “sick and dying first-responders, 9/11’s heroes, who can’t even pay their light bill let alone their medical bills.” Fourth, “we changed the definition of pre-emptive attack so we can unilaterally bomb the shit out of, invade and occupy countries even if they pose no credible threat or had nothing to do with 9/11.” Finally:

How you going to put it into action? I mean, the American people are never going to go for shit like that, right? You’re damn straight. No, what you need is an event, an event that gets everyone’s heads turned around the right way. What you need is a new Pearl Harbor.

In subsequent episodes, “Franco” has taken quite a bit of heat from other firefighters, and a widow, angry at him for tarring the department and the memory of their husband, by lending his name to the conspiracy theories.

From the May 12 episode, in what matches the video/audio, the exchange between “Gavin” and “Genevieve,” played by actress Karina Lombard:

GENEVIÉVE: You should open up about it, be vulnerable. It’s attractive.

TOMMY GAVIN: It’s not like a bartering chip I use to pick up chicks with. You know, that was like the beginning of World War III for us, so-

GENEVIÉVE: Yeah, okay. That is unattractive.

GAVIN: What?

GENEVIÉVE:  Well, the part where you go from how you feel to World War III.

GAVIN: But that is how I feel.

GENEVIÉVE: You know, 9/11 was a tragedy. To most of the world it was a tragedy, but to Americans, it was the beginning of the end of the world.

GAVIN: What’s your point?

GENEVIÉVE: Well, you know, France warned the U.S. government because of their experience with Algeria. And then told them that maybe this was not a good idea and they didn’t want to send their people to die.

GAVIN: Listen, I don’t get why you want to do a book about 9/11 if this is your take on America.

GENEVIÉVE: Because it’s an amazing story, it’s a story about how so many people in the world came to support America and its people, to say, “hey, you know what? You’ve done so much to help us and to support us, we want to give back to you.” But what did your government do with all that good will? Hell, you went right back to war. You started two new wars. In the name of what? Revenge?

GAVIN: All right, hang on. First of all, I don’t know shit about no Algerians, okay? Second of all, yeah I wanted revenge. I wanted revenge for my cousin. I wanted revenge for my country. I wanted revenge for the 50 other guys I knew that day that got buried under that shit. How am I supposed to feel? I wanted blood. I wanted it in like a week. So, I’ll be honest with you, I basically feel the same right now. So, shoot me.

GENEVIÉVE:  Every goddamn war is about revenge — and the French don’t believe in guns.

GAVIN: Nah, or soap.

GENEVIÉVE: Uhh. Great cliche.

Discussing 9/11 with firefighter “Tommy Gavin,” played by show creator Denis Leary, “Genevieve” agreed “9/11 was a tragedy. To most of the world it was a tragedy,” but she fretted, “to Americans, it was the beginning of the end of the world.” As the two walked along a Manhattan street following a visit to Ground Zero, she lectured, presumably alluding to Iraq: “France warned the U.S. government because of their experience with Algeria. And then told them that maybe this was not a good idea and they didn’t want to send their people to die.” As to why she wants to write about 9/11:

It’s an amazing story, it’s a story about how so many people in the world came to support America and its people, to say, “hey, you know what? You’ve done so much to help us and to support us, we want to give back to you.” But what did your government do with all that good will? Hell, you went right back to war. You started two new wars. In the name of what? Revenge?…Every goddamn war is about revenge — and the French don’t believe in guns.

To which, Gavin zinged: “Or soap.”

Audio: MP3 clip (2:20, 900 Kb)

My April 15 NewsBusters item, “FX’s ‘Rescue Me’ Pushes 9/11 as ‘Massive Neo-Conservative’ Conspiracy,” recounted:

The 9/11 terrorist attacks were part of “a massive neo-conservative government effort” to enable “American global domination,” a character on FX’s "Rescue Me" argued on Tuesday night’s episode. In the drama about firefighters in New York City, firefighter “Franco Rivera,” played by actor Daniel Sunjata, a real-life 9/11 “truther,” laid out his theory for a French journalist interviewing firefighters for a book on 9/11 first-responders. As noted in a February NewsBusters post, in a New York Times story about the then-upcoming storyline, Brian Stelter reported the ludicrous theory “may represent the first fictional presentation of 9/11 conspiracy theories by a mainstream media company (FX is operated by the News Corporation).”

During the episode, “Franco” outlined the four-point plan by the Project for a New American Century, starting with how Bush-Cheney “came to power with plans already made to attack Afghanistan and Iraq.” Second, “we have to make huge technological advances with our armed forces, that for some reason include the capability to fight wars from outer space.” Third, “huge increases in military spending” to the neglect of “sick and dying first-responders, 9/11’s heroes, who can’t even pay their light bill let alone their medical bills.” Fourth, “we changed the definition of pre-emptive attack so we can unilaterally bomb the shit out of, invade and occupy countries even if they pose no credible threat or had nothing to do with 9/11.” Finally:

How you going to put it into action? I mean, the American people are never going to go for shit like that, right? You’re damn straight. No, what you need is an event, an event that gets everyone’s heads turned around the right way. What you need is a new Pearl Harbor.

In subsequent episodes, “Franco” has taken quite a bit of heat from other firefighters, and a widow, angry at him for tarring the department and the memory of their husband, by lending his name to the conspiracy theories.

From the May 12 episode, in what matches the video/audio, the exchange between “Gavin” and “Genevieve,” played by actress Karina Lombard:

GENEVIÉVE: You should open up about it, be vulnerable. It’s attractive.

TOMMY GAVIN: It’s not like a bartering chip I use to pick up chicks with. You know, that was like the beginning of World War III for us, so-

GENEVIÉVE: Yeah, okay. That is unattractive.

GAVIN: What?

GENEVIÉVE:  Well, the part where you go from how you feel to World War III.

GAVIN: But that is how I feel.

GENEVIÉVE: You know, 9/11 was a tragedy. To most of the world it was a tragedy, but to Americans, it was the beginning of the end of the world.

GAVIN: What’s your point?

GENEVIÉVE: Well, you know, France warned the U.S. government because of their experience with Algeria. And then told them that maybe this was not a good idea and they didn’t want to send their people to die.

GAVIN: Listen, I don’t get why you want to do a book about 9/11 if this is your take on America.

GENEVIÉVE: Because it’s an amazing story, it’s a story about how so many people in the world came to support America and its people, to say, “hey, you know what? You’ve done so much to help us and to support us, we want to give back to you.” But what did your government do with all that good will? Hell, you went right back to war. You started two new wars. In the name of what? Revenge?

GAVIN: All right, hang on. First of all, I don’t know shit about no Algerians, okay? Second of all, yeah I wanted revenge. I wanted revenge for my cousin. I wanted revenge for my country. I wanted revenge for the 50 other guys I knew that day that got buried under that shit. How am I supposed to feel? I wanted blood. I wanted it in like a week. So, I’ll be honest with you, I basically feel the same right now. So, shoot me.

GENEVIÉVE:  Every goddamn war is about revenge — and the French don’t believe in guns.

GAVIN: Nah, or soap.

GENEVIÉVE: Uhh. Great cliche.