three years

A new documentary Taxi to the Dark Side was recently nominated for an Academy Award. The film investigates some of the most egregious abuses associated with the so-called war on terror, including the US torture of prisoners. The film is directed by Alex Gibney, who also directed Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Gibney sold the television rights to the 'Discovery Channel' who own them for the next three years. The Discovery Channel had told him “Look, we love this film. We’re going to give it a broad and very prominent airing.” The following is Alex Gibney speaking on Amy Goodmans Democracy Now!

"Well, it turns out that the Discovery Channel isn’t so interested in discovery. I mean, I heard that—I was told a little bit before my Academy Award nomination that they had no intention of airing the film, that new management had come in and they were about to go through a public offering, so it was probably too controversial for that. They didn’t want to cause any waves. It turns out, Discovery turns out to be the see-no-evil/hear-no-evil channel."

If the film comes to your local theater, you might consider seeing it, as you won't be seeing on your TV for the next three years. An update to this posting. The film won an Oscar for Best Documentary and HBO bought it from the Discovery Channel.