Obama Fundraiser's Bin Laden Movie To Hit Screen Two Days Before Elections

This official White House photograph made
available May 2, 2011 shows US President Barack
Obama (2nd L) and Vice President Joe Biden (L),
US Secretray of Defense Robert Gates (R) and US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) along
with members of the national security team, as
they receive an update on the mission against
Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the
White House, in Washington, DC on May 1, 2011.
Please note: a classified document seen in this
photograph has been obscured. (AFP Photo/
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
Two days before the presidential election, a film
embellishing the death of Osama bin Laden will
be released by a company whose co-chairman
has raised more than $100,000 for the Obama
Victory Fund.
The film, titled “Seal Team Six: The Raid on
Osama bin Laden,” will air on the National
Geographic Channel on Nov. 4. The channel
claims it is not political and using the debut date
to help promote the start of its fall season, the
Associated Press reported.
But Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The
Weinstein Co. and Voltage Pictures – which
produced the film – is an avid supporter of the
president’s re-election.
Weinstein hosted an election fundraiser for
President Obama at his Westport, Connecticut
home in early August, where the cost of
attendance to a 50-person dinner was $35,800
per head. But the event wasn’t Weinstein’s first
Obama fundraiser. The film producer and movie
chairman has donated over $75,000 to
Democratic campaigns this election cycle and
more than $100,000 to the Obama Victory Fund.
Obama’s re-election campaign has often hyped
up the former terrorist leader’s death at the
hands of US Navy SEALs as an example of the
president’s leadership. Many have called the al-
Qaeda leader’s killing one of Obama’s greatest
successes.
The National Geographic Channel claims the film’s
debut date, scheduled just 48 hours before the
election, is not meant to sway voters into
supporting Obama.
“Harvey obviously doesn’t schedule our network,”
the channel’s president, Howard T. Owens, told
the Associated Press. The channel is “not political.
We are opportunistic from a programming
perspective,” he added.
The channel also asserts that the film is meant
purely to give a historical account of the events
surrounding bin Laden’s death – not take a
political stance.
“While some aspects of the characterizations have
been dramatized for creative reasons, the core
story is an accurate portrayal of an event that
ended the longest manhunt in American history,”
stated a National Geographic news release.
But some continue to perceive the debut as a
secret weapon of Obama campaign supporters,
especially when examining the extensive
fundraising efforts made the film’s producer.
Netflix subscribers will have access to the film a
day after its premiere – and one day before the
presidential election.