By Diane Winston

Here’s a tip: Before filing a story, check the archives. Maybe someone else’s reporting will provide context for your own.

Sounds like Journalism 101, much too basic for old hands at the nation’s top newspapers. Yet reporters and critics covering the brouhaha over “The Path to 9/11,” the ABC miniseries on the World Trade Center attacks, might have benefited from a June 26, 2005 New York Timesarticle, “The Right Side of the Theatre.” That piece, by James Ulmer, describes “a new wave in Hollywood, a group that intends to clean those media pipes with pictures that promote godliness, Pax Americana and its own view of family values.” Ulmer reveals that a new cohort of conservative documentarians are finding it easier to establish political contacts, attract deep pockets and transform Hollywood from within.

Sound familiar? Several folks in Ulmer’s piece played a part in the development of “The Path to 9/11.” A quick comparison with Max Blumenthal’s recent Huffington post “Discover the Secret Right Wing Network Behind ABC’s 9/11 Deception” shows groups mentioned in the Ulmer piece, such as the Liberty Film Festival and the Wednesday Morning Club, also had a role in the 9/11 docudrama.

But while Blumenthal has his facts right, his interpretation is wrong: The “right wing network” isn’t a secret. They described their plans just last year to the New York Times: Theirs is a religious and political mission to change the culture from within. “In the future, why wouldn’t we want to take over the lever of Hollywood?” asked one of Ulmer’s sources.

There’s the outline: Now all the mainstream media needs to do is connect the dots.

Diane Winston holds the Knight Chair in Religion and Media at the University of Southern California