Off topic: Bush assassination documentary

[John Kennedy White]

British TV channel to show film of fictional Bush assassination

LONDON (AP) - British television channel More4 plans to broadcast a dramatic film, documentary-style, about a fictional assassination of U.S. President George W. Bush, the network's head said Thursday.

The program uses actors and digital manipulation of real footage to show a fictional account of Bush being gunned down after delivering a speech in Chicago, Peter Dale, the head of More4, told a news conference.

Death of a President, also scheduled to be shown at the Toronto Film Festival in September, focuses on all those linked to the pretend crime _ including nearby anti-war protesters, suspects, Secret Service guards and investigators, Dale said.

More4, which is the digital offshoot of Britain's Channel 4 network, plans to show the program on Oct. 9.

The White House declined to comment on the network's announcement, saying it would not dignify the program with a response.

``It's an extraordinarily gripping and powerful piece of work, a drama constructed like a documentary that looks back at the assassination of George Bush as the starting point for a very gripping detective story,'' Dale told reporters.

``It's a pointed political examination of what the war on terror did to the American body politic,'' he said.

Dale said he expected the film would upset some but defended it as a sophisticated piece of work.

``It's not sensationalist, or simplistic but a very thought-provoking, powerful drama,'' he said. ``I hope people will see that the intention behind it is good.''

Death of a President is directed by Gabriel Range, whose 2003 TV movie, The Day Britain Stopped, showed what might happen if the country's transportation network ground to a halt.

[Brendan Slattery]

Bush Derangement Syndrome strikes again. We weren't supposed to notice hate disguised as "art"? Gee, where are the bold and "courageous" movies or docudramas attacking radical Islam or the killers of Theo Van Gogh? Why no korans suspended in a jar of urine? Printing cartoon photos of Mohammad is verboten, but sick assassination fantasies are ok? Looks like the head-choppers have won. Eff off, Europe.

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Channel Four started life as a partly public funded minority interest channel, most of its work in the early days was interesting, some groundbreaking. But the last few years has seen an alarming slip in broadcast content, with Big brother, and celebrity B/B now its flagships. I dont hold out too much hope.