Disney right-wng controversy was preceded by Sinclair and Clear Channel...

[Eric J in MN]

...right-wing controversies.

Disney/ABC is showing a movie on Sunday night which makes Clinton look bad with fictionalized scenes of the Clinton Admin stopping the capture of Usama bin Laden.

Before the 2004 election, Sinclair planned to show "Stolen Honor," an anti-John Kerry documentary. (According to wikipedia, it didn't air.)

After the Dixie Chicks said they were embarassed Bush is from Texas, during the leadup to the Iraq War, Clear Channel disc jockeys urged people to go to rallies to destroy Dixie Chicks' CDs.

The moral of the story is: BREAKUP BIG MEDIA.

[AX10]

1. It's called fascism!

Break up the media conglomerates. Even the smaller ones such as Tribune, The Washington Post Co, and the large radio/tv station owners such as Cumulus and Sinclair should be smashed!

[Eric J in MN]

4. If the Washington Post didn't own a cable company,

...Cable One, which provides internet access, maybe the newspaper wouldn't have editorialized against "Net Neutrality."

[AX10]

7. Exactly! Even though the Post co is not that large...

(Market Cap $7.3B) they are still large enough to benifit from deregulation.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Amen.

A return to the old anti-monopoly rules & the fairness doctrine would be a good start.

[AX10]

3. Even if we went back to the Spring of 1996, before the...

Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed (Sept 1996), the media was no where near this bad.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was one of the WORSE pieces of legislation ever passed.

We need another Teddy Roosevelt to come along and smash this POS once and for all!

[texpatriot2004]

5. I am glad you mentioned that. I have been thinking about Sinclair

and pulling a "Sinclair" on the liars at ABC and Disney.

[zbdent]

6. I recall that some Sinclair stations did air a "modified" version

of "Stolen Honor" ...

[Eric J in MN]

8. Yes, that's what I thought. That Sinclair aried a watered-down

..version.

Maybe wikipedia is wrong.

[wishlist]

12. Sinclair ran a revised Stolen Honor that portrayed Kerry's war heroism

After all the pre-emptive complaints about their anti-Kerry editorial policy, Sinclair ran a revised version that did not 'swiftboat' Kerry but was surprisingly balanced and accurate showing Kerry's heroic military service and Bush's controversial avoidance of active duty. It presented the viewpoints of vets who opposed the war as well as vets who disapproved of war critics like Kerry.

The boycotts of sponsors and complaints to the FCC and local TV affiliates made a big difference in the final version Sinclair showed.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Next Week It'll Be Forgotten

Good thing about bad TV...outta sight outta mind. Right now the more noise we make about this piece of propaganda, the more publicity it gets. And ya think the corporate media's gonna rush to help us on this one? Think they'll come out as "indignant" like the talking heads did during the Raygun movie fiasco? Nope...cause we don't have an equivelent "echo machine" like the right wing does. The more noise we make, the more fodder the right wing asshats have and the media picks up on that angle...not the lies of this crapumentary.

The Sinclair Swiftboat crap was a perfect example. Not only was it obviously partisan...just like this tripe...but it was poorly done and couldn't hold an audience. Sure, the Clinton haters will be extatic...so what? Makin such a big stink now does little but gets people curious what "all this noise is about". I suspect come Monday we'll find out this was a complete joke and not worth all the noise and angst its created.

Also, Disney is a network...not a station owner. People screaming to "revoke" licenses don't realize most of Disney's properties operate outside of the FCC now...ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC programming on cable & satellite. Its a huge corporate where they can aford to lose money on this venture since they can make it up on other things.

Fortunately what starts on DU generally stays on DU...lots of angst and venting and little action. Also it seems this story has gotten little if any notice in the "mainstream" media...I'm not hearing "ordinary people" talking about it. Methinks 5 years on, minds are set on the causes of 9/11 and there's precious little anyone can say or do that will change a person's opinion. Those who want to play Iraq=9/11 are so stuck in that mode now there's no hope for them.

Yes, some type of broadcast re-regulation should happen...but it's too late in many cases. The FCC is a paper tiger and has been since cable TV came in. My hopes are these corporations have so over-extended themselves financially they're starting to strangle on their own largess.

Peace...

[Eric J in MN]

10. Another way to benefit the pubic and strike back at Disney...

...would be for Congress to shorten copyrights.

Make the older Disney movies public domain.

[KharmaTrain]

11. They'll Just Crank Out Another Lion King...

I knew a manager of a local ABC Radio station. This station was a ratings disaster and had undergone format and management changes galore. I joked with the then new Station Manager about what a joke it was and how much money had been wasted on this operation. He just said "all they need is to make another Lion King and they're golden".

Problem with boycotts against large corporations like a Disney is how wide ranging that boycott has to be. People will think ABC, but they won't associate it going to their local ESPN Zone or shopping the Disney store at the mall or buying that Pixar DVD.

The game revolves around the push by broadcasters to get one more round of dereg through...especially if Congress changes hands. McCain was blocking the bill from 2004 that would allow companies like Disney to buy more television properties and exempt from even more regulation. If anything, we're starting to see the big broadcast corporations chafe under their own largess. The large radio companies are bleeding money these days...Disney is desperately trying to sell many of their big radio properties as properties values begin to fall. I wouldn't be surprised if they're looking for more "de-regulation" to help "ease" their financial distress...and this is just a chit in that game. It's a dangerous one for Disney cause it could backfire...depending on if a Democratic majority we can mustered. And that's still not a sure thing. Remember...it was under Clinton that the greatest damage occured...Telcom '96.

Peace...