The ABC network on Sunday debuted a newly edited version of its controversial miniseries about events leading up to the September 11 attacks, toning down parts that drew the most fire from leading Democrats who called the film propaganda.
As originally presented in copies of the movie circulated to TV critics for review, The Path to 9/11 strongly suggested that President Bill Clinton was too distracted by the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal to deal with the gathering threat posed by Islamic extremists in the 1990s.
But in the version of the miniseries aired by ABC on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the September 11 suicide hijackings that claimed nearly 3,000 lives, several specific references to the Lewinsky affair were removed.
And a scene that depicted Mr Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, as pulling the plug on a golden opportunity to snatch Osama bin Laden from his hide-out in Afghanistan was shortened to leave unclear who it was precisely that refused to authorise the CIA mission.
Mr Berger and others have insisted that no such episode ever occurred, and the executive producer of the miniseries, Marc Platt, acknowledged last week that the Berger scene was based on a "conflation of events".
Before the broadcast, several former Clinton aides and congressional Democrats sent letters of protest to Robert Iger, president and CEO of ABC's corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co., complaining that the film was filled with inaccuracies and distortions.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean condemned the production as a piece of conservative political propaganda designed to tar Mr Clinton and urged ABC to cancel it.
Mr Reid suggested the film, which ABC had touted as a work based largely on the findings of the official 9/11 commission report, was so misleading that it might violate the terms of the network's broadcast licence.
The furor added fuel to an election-year debate over which party, Republicans or Democrats, was tougher on terrorism.
Producers denied having a political ax to grind. And ABC defended its $40 million production as a dramatisation, not a documentary, that presented the essence of events despite fictionalised elements added for narrative purposes.
The network and producers also insisted they were continuing to edit the film up until its broadcast. Part one of the five-hour miniseries aired on Sunday. Part two was set to air yesterday. While the lion's share of Sunday's broadcast was unchanged, a few key alterations seemed aimed at addressing Democrats' sharpest criticisms.
In one edited scene, White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke says he didn't know how Mr Clinton would respond to the bombings of two US embassies in Africa, but a line in which he added, "this Lewinsky thing is a noose around (Clinton's) neck" was cut from the dialogue.
ABC also removed a line in which Mr Clarke said he doubted Mr Clinton "is going to take chances" when Republicans were "going all out for impeachment".
The controversial scene that originally depicted Mr Berger refusing to give CIA agents and a team of Afghan fighters the go-ahead to snatch Osama bin Laden from his compound was altered so no particular individual was made to appear responsible for aborting the mission.
One famous piece of news footage of Mr Clinton denying that he had sexual relations with Ms Lewinsky was kept in the film, introduced by dialogue between two characters complaining of bureaucratic red tape slowing efforts to go after bin Laden. A couple of other clips related to Mr Clinton and the White House sex scandal were deleted from the final broadcast.