What happened to plain, old truth and nothing but?

ABC’s controversial television docudrama “The Path to 9/11” made my mind reel for all of five hours. What was fact, what was fiction, what was spin, what was scripted for a television audience enthralled by other “reality” shows?

The main question remains: What is a docudrama? Apparently, it’s one of those mixed breeds, not really documentary or it would be forced to the standard of accuracy, and not totally drama because of the strain of tragic truth underlining the miniseries.

As Maureen Dowd wrote Sept. 9 in The New York Times, “In Hollywood, reality comes with quotation marks around it, as in fixed and scripted ‘reality’ shows. … Hybrids of fiction and nonfiction are lavishly rewarded; publishers want the reality part to sell the fiction part and the fiction part to enhance the reality part.”

The problem is many viewers become confused while others become cynical, and our “reality” is as distorted as Alice’s in Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland.

Years ago, when we watched Oliver Stone’s movie about John Kennedy’s assassination, we accepted the “conspiracy” theory as Stone’s own – not necessarily fact. It was a movie, we concluded, not a documentary.

Yet in this day of “infotainment,” television producers (primarily) have such a low opinion of the viewing public that they believe it necessary to deliver the news while tap-dancing or juggling or adding spices to the basic ingredients for “kick.” The facts merely aren’t good enough.

Many of us grew up to Edward R. Murrow, to David Huntley and Chet Brinkley, to Walter Cronkite. In those days, we were confident the news reports they delivered were accurate and unbiased. We never considered television or any other media would be accused of public manipulation.

But then came “simulated” broadcast segments; then came words into our vocabularies such as “virtual” and now “reality.” Then came fabricated news stories in prestigious dailies; then came false claims that brought down presidents – and nightly news anchors.

In our topsy-turvy world right now, the public clamors for information, not for dramatization or sensationalism. Just the facts, ma’am, as Sgt. Friday repeatedly said in the “Dragnet” series. Just the facts. On the Internet, on television, in newspapers, on radio.

Maureen Dowd asked in her recent column: “Why do presidents and filmmakers dealing with the most stunning events in recent American history feel the need to go beyond facts? Isn’t the dire actuality enough? ”

Gone are the days of “Truth or Consequences.” In more ways than one.