• Daily Variety, Tuesday, December 26, 2006 10:49 AM

The Center for Media and Democracy has tapped ABC as the first-place winner of its annual "Falsies," awards that recognize "the most heinous polluters of the information environment over the past year."

The progressive watchdog gave the nod to the Alphabet Network for its "Path to 9/11" miniseries, which it says attempted to rewrite history with the six-hour "docudrama" that was "written and produced by conservative filmmakers." Further, while the program's script was said to be based on the official 9/11 Commission report, it "included fabrications that are directly contradicted by the report."

The runner-up was the Natl. Assn. of Broadcast Communicators, which disputes a CMD report about how TV stations use public relations videos --or video news releases--as real news. "This authoritative-sounding group (made of PR groups behind VNRs) wins second billing in this year's Falsies Awards for defending systematic deception of news audiences while claiming to support the FCC's efforts to ensure compliance with sponsorship identification requirements," the group says.

Winners receive a fake identity kit, along with "a one-way ticket to Palookaville," and a "free e-mail subscription to all those online offers of Viagra and free money from Nigeria."

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