Spike’s 9/11 Disgrace
AS the 20th-anniversary approaches of the infamous day of terror, 9/11, it devastates me to see the denial from some of my fellow citizens. The latest big mouth carrying a megaphone full of lies is Spike Lee.
The filmmaker is a loud and proud purveyor of some of the foulest 9/11 conspiracy theories, including the belief, which has spread like toxic mold over the past two decades, that forces within the US government brought down New York City’s World Trade Center and ripped away the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
The crazies not only recklessly accuse our government of being responsible for mass slaughter, they let the forces of evil who committed the atrocities off the hook. The Oscar winner is unapologetic, explaining that “I got questions.”
The disgusting tales are promoted in the director’s four-part docu-series, “New York Epicenters: 9/11-2021½,” set to run on HBO. In addition to interviewing the usuals — from Mayor de Blasio to frontline workers — Lee, 64, credulously promotes the yappings of an outfit called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, featuring interviews with several of the organization’s members. The group believes that “controlled demolitions” brought down the towers, not the airplanes hijacked by Islamic extremists.
In an interview with The New York Times, Lee said he doesn’t buy into official explanations of the terror attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in a field in Shanksville, Pa. “The amount of heat that it takes to make steel melt, that temperature’s not reached,” Lee told the paper, in quotes worthy of the darkest conspiracy corners of the Internet. “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.’’
Lee vomited theories that have been repeatedly debunked. For one thing, in addition to jet fuel, the many materials that burned in the buildings — including furniture, computer equipment and so much paper — were estimated to reach temperatures that were, indeed, capable of warping steel.
And the delayed collapse of 7 World Trade Center, which Lee claims was caused intentionally by government forces, was deemed the result of structural damage from the earlier collapse of the North Tower, coupled with fires that raged for some seven hours.
But why let reality ruin Lee’s money grab?
Some Hollywood numnuts have also spouted conspiracy theories (Rosie O’Donnell disputed that fire has ever melted steel, Mark Ruffalo concluded that “buildings don’t fall down like that,’’ Charlie Sheen declared that Washington was behind the attacks and so on.) But Lee, ever the narcissist, is actually declaring that his documentary could make a difference.
“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.”
Yes, we’ve never had one of those. Never had a mammoth 9/11 Commission Report that interviewed more than 1,000 people and examined every aspect of the attack. And concluded 9/11 was caused by madmen, and the intelligence failures of multiple administrations.
The liberal media is aghast at misinformation online, writing story after story about QAnon. Social-media companies police what you’re allowed to say about COVID, and politics, and the election.
But somehow Spike Lee is immune, not only given a free pass to peddle this dreck, but he has it promoted on HBO. Because for leftist cultural institutions, it’s all right to suggest that the US government is a bigger villain than al Qaeda.
The only thing any of us can do to stop this reprehensible liar is to ignore him. Boycott the show. Boycott HBO.