http://blogs.mspmag.com/themorningafter/2009/12/tv-conspiracy-theory-with-jess.html

Some of this is standard hit piece rhetoric, but some other parts underscore why it is important to be critical of the Ventura episode.

From the article:

Episode 2 involves the popular theory among a certain class of [I had originally used the word "wingnuts" here, but in deference to the heated responses below, let's just call them "zealous doubters"] that 9/11 was masterminded by none other than the White House itself, in order to justify attacking Saddam Hussein and invade Iraq. (As if W could ever manage an operation that complicated.) Nevertheless, Jesse and his team of sleuths dig through the rubble of 9/11 to expose several "unexplained" anomalies in the physical evidence—that the black-box flight recorders were supposedly never found, although some people claim they saw FBI agents removing them, as well as evidence of explosive residue in the dust—and beg the question why these details were never mentioned in the official 9/11 Commission Report. [Incidentally, the real reason this information wasn't included has nothing to do with a conspiracy—it's that the 911 Commission Report was written to chronicle the rise of Islamic terrorism and recommend courses of action; there are no specifics whatsoever about the fall of the buildings or the forensics of Ground Zero.]

The most entertaining part of the episode is when Jesse goes into "combat mode" and mounts an "assault" on Hangar 17 at JFK, where some of the 9/11 debris is still being stored. Every time Jesse encounters a locked door, it makes him suspicious. ("Why is it locked? What are they hiding?") It makes you wonder what he locks behind closed doors. And when Jesse finally finds a door with a small window in it, he peers inside and exclaims, "THIS is what they don't want me to see!" Exactly what "this" is isn't entirely clear, because you can't really see anything, but it makes for some hilarious, compulsively watchable television.

Conspiracy theorists are a wildly entertaining bunch because they can spin out the most fantastical theories based on the flimsiest of evidence—and for that I have to give them credit. In the show, the theory is proposed that 9/11 was a so-called "false flag" operation, which, as Jesse explains, is a covert action perpetrated by our own government but designed to look like someone else did it. The supposed justification is that bankers and oil companies needed a war to boost business, George W. Bush needed an excuse to attack Saddam Hussein, and Dick Cheney needed an excuse to enact the Patriot Act.

Conveniently, conspiracy theorists never think to ask questions about the holes raised by their own theories. For instance, why, if the goal was to attack Iraq, did the CIA cast Saudi Arabians in the role of terrorist hijackers? Why blame it on Osama bin Laden if you're really after Saddam? Why invent such an elaborate plot if the goal of war could have been accomplished more simply with less loss of life—by, say, blowing up a symbolic target like the Golden Gate Bridge, which would have the added benefit of killing a few hundred annoying liberals? And how, if it was a conspiracy, could the government keep it a secret and still ensure that some very important people wouldn't be inside those buildings at the time of the attack—people they didn't really want to kill?

Alas, it is only a one-hour show.

Still, TruTV's producers do a credible job of laying out the evidence for their conspiracy claims, and they even engage in a bit of actual journalism by interviewing retired government personnel, aviation experts, FBI representatives and the usual assortment of oddballs and regular citizens with an axe to grind (er, "questions" for which they want "answers".) In both episodes so far, the team has also staged small scientific experiments to test certain theories, such as the idea that electromagnetic charges could be used to move clouds or how an explosive material called thermite might have helped melt the steel beams in the World Trade Center. (The words "may," "might," "could," and "possibly" do a lot of heavy lifting in this show.)