Did Rupert Murdoch Buy National Geographic?

Because otherwise, I can't think of any reason why they would be airing "George W. Bush: the 9/11 Interview."

Is there some chance that they think he's going to suddenly be honest?

Look at this clip:


First clip from Nat Geo's "George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview" from Realscreen magazine on Vimeo.


He starts out by lying, saying that he never wanted to be a wartime president, when we know that his adminsitration had been drawing up invasion plans for Iraq before 9/11, just waiting for a pretext.

Then he tells this bizzarre story about being told that the first plane had hit the WTC. He says that he thought it was a light aircraft and that it must have been some sort of weather-related accident or something. Had he not already been informed that 4 very large airplanes had been hijacked that morning? And when his aides told him about the crash, could they really have been that vague about the details? Would they really not have said "um, no, Mr. President, this was a fucking 747 and it looks to have been intentional?" Why would he have assumed that this was a minor incident? If a "light aircraft" had accisentally crashed into a building, that doesn't seem like something that would merit alerting the POTUS. And if he really did think that this was some sad, but minor accident, why instruct his staff to send all possible help to New York? If this was a light aircraft crashing in Manhattan, the FDNY would have been perfectly capable of handling it.

Bush's negligence on Sept. 11 was absolutely inexcusable and unforgivable. Instead of telling his staff to send help and then walking into a classroom, he should have been on the phone with NORAD. As soon as he got word that four different 747's had been hijacked at the same time, he should have been in contact with NORAD. Who knows how many lives could have been saved by scrambling fighter jets to force the planes down? Look at what happened with the 4th plane in Pennsylvania. Contrary to the story we all were originally told, the passengers did not wrest control of the plane from the terrorists. (If they had, would they have flown it straight into the ground, or would they have called air traffic control and try to get someone to talk them through safely landing the plane?) No, the black box confirms that as soon as the passengers started to kick down the cockpit door, the terrorists panicked and steered the plane into the ground because they knew that they could be overpowered and might lose their chance to kill thousands, so they decided they would at least kill the Americans who were on board their plane. There's no reason to think that they might not have reacted similarily to US fighter jets.

There is another promo running on the "Nat Geo" channel in which Bush states that his emotions at the time were "sadness, grief, and determination." Really? Determination? Determination to find out how "My Pet Goat" ends? (In the above clip, Bush claims that he was "listening intently to the lesson" ) Or was it determination to invade the wrong country?

I expect this sort of thing from FOX. They have a pathological need to participate in this sort of shameless rehabilitation of GW Bush, but National Geographic? Aren't they supposed to be an educational organization? Why in the hell would they be a party to this sort of blatantly disingenuous propoganda?