Next month marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and Spike Lee‘s HBO docu-series “NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½” landed itself in hot water after it was revealed episodes featured conspiracy theories on the Twin Towers and what “really took down the buildings.”
While three of four episodes were given to the press initially for review, it wasn’t until the fourth and final episode appears in HBO’s screening portal that some journalists notice the doc devoted 30 minutes to debating how the Twin Towers fell and giving airtime to several members of the conspiracy group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Facing much backlash and outcry, Lee, via HBO, explained to the press that they should “keep an open mind” and wait for the final cut.
Well, that final cut is in now, and we can confirm that instead of two hours long, the fourth and final episode of ‘NYC Epicenters’ is now one hour and thirty minutes, i.e., the entire segment devoted to debating how the Towers fell and lending credence to the conspiracy group is now gone. That feels much less like a final edit and more like removing an entire controversial documentary segment to avoid further outrage, to be honest.
In an interview with The New York Times before he cut any offending footage out, Lee attempted to defend the truther scenes. “People [are] going to make up their own mind,” he said. ‘My approach is to put the information in the movie and let people decide for themselves. I respect the intelligence of the audience.”
“I did get the understanding in my discussions with [Lee] that he wanted to give them credence,” Ronald Hamburger said to The New York Times. Hamburger investigated the collapse of the towers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and also appeared in the original cut of ‘NYC Epicenters,’ explaining to Lee about the various structural failings that lead to the towers crumbling.
‘NYC Epicenters’ did flirt with the idea of peddling conspiracy theories earlier on, and in episode three, a brief moment is included that supports the idea that United Flight 93 was shot down, not crashed, though that could have been seen as just the thoughts of a paranoid flight attendant at the time. Either way, it’s all a disappointing moment from an otherwise beloved filmmaker. Not to mention a bungled response by just cutting out the entire section and trying to convince journalists the doc wasn’t actually finished yet.
It’ll be interesting to see how HBO/WarnerMedia and Spike Lee explain themselves over this ordeal as they clearly thought these conspiracy talking points were worth placing into their project in the first place. The irony is, ‘NYC Epicenters,’ in earlier episodes, discusses the dangers of spreading conspiracies theories and lies about the 2020 election and COVID-19/vaccines. Still, evidently, Lee didn’t apply the same reasoning to 9/11 theories. –Additional reporting by Rodrigo Perez
