The Christian Right has worked hard to paint Disney as a “liberal” company, despite the facts to the contrary. Disney was the last studio to grant same-sex partner benefits, and then only out of fear that they would lose queer employees they depended on to more enlightened studios. The Christian extremists condemn Disney for Gay Nights at Disneyland and Disney World even though Disney rudely refuses to recognize the unofficial and profitable events. Disney also broadcasted the propagandadrama, “The Path to 9/11” on its ABC television network, falsely claiming the show was based on the 9/11 Commission Report.

In a previous posting of mine, What if Disney Imposed Its Right-Wing Agenda on Its Cartoon Characters?, even a liberal commenter mistakenly opined that Disney was liberal.

If you want another example of Disney's rightist ideology, look at its talk radio stations. They are nutty right-wing. One of them, KSFO in San Francisco, has gone far enough to generate a major backlash. A show hosted by Melanie Rogers has been caught advocating (sometimes as quasi-jokes) individual murder, mass murder, and torture of people right-wingers dislike.

The blog which brought this to the attention of the public, Spocko's Brain, was shut down temporarily by Disney/ABC's legal threats for using audio clips as evidence of the statements being made on the show and for letting advertisers know what kind of radio programming surrounds their happy, happy commercials. The blog went back up, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent a letter reminding Disney/ABC about the blog's legal rights under fair use.

If Disney is such a “liberal” company, then why is it broadcasting so much rightist propaganda. The Christian Right is wrong as usual.

More on the Controversy from Media Matters

For years, Disney-owned ABC News has had a pervasive right-wing bias. But, that has failed to satisfied Disney. Now they are imposing their extremely right-wing ideology on ABC's entertainment division, spending tens of millions of dollars on the mocku/crocku/propagandadrama, “The Path to 9/11.” They use massive historical distortions and omissions to try to distract attention from the Bush administration's failure to even make a serious effort to prevent the 911 attacks, despite numerous warnings.

This has gotten me to thinking, what would happen if Disney's upper-management people imposed their fringe-right politics on their cartoon universe.

THE NEW DISNEY CARTOON PANTHEON:

ANN COULTER MOUSE:
Forget the charming and cute Mickey, this new mouse has an attitude. When "Mouskateers" dare to express moderate or liberal points of view, Ann Coulter Mouse calls them harpies and accuses them of wanting their parents dead. This new Disney icon also prides herself on calling moderate and liberal children Islamofascists and telling them that their parents would like to put them up for adoption, but can't find anyone who wants them.

MUSLIM MOUSE:
Minnie's replacement, like all believers in Islam, is a villain in the Brave New Disney World. Muslim Mouse refuses to accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God and One True Savior. Muslim Mouse also refuses to make falafels for Bill O'Reilly (documentation).

SNOW WHITE:
Disney will keep the name, but change her costume into white robes and a dunce cap, KKK style. Her dialog will be adapted to primarily include slurs involving other cartoon characters' ethnicities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

CINDERELLA:
Once again, the name remains the same. However, Cinderella now is a conniving, social-climber who doesn't know that she shouldn't socialize with her betters. The good Prince has her beheaded after accusing her of stealing a rich girl's slippers.

TASTI:
Tasti will replace the cloying Bambi. Tasti will mock politically-correct people who object to hunting. Tasti then will be shot. Disney was considering incorporating Tasti Shooting Ranges into its theme parks, but their legal department nixed the plan on the grounds of liability concerns. Damned Lawyers!

DONALD RUMSFELD:
Who needs a cartoon duck when you have an animated version of Donald Rumsfeld? The new Donald is even more bellicose than the old, and what he says is even less intelligible.

THE GHOST OF VINCE FOSTER:
The Fantasia Ghosts will be replaced by an ethereal fictionalization of Vince Foster. This ghost will tell the kiddies all the bad, bad things the Clintons have done.

THE PERFECT KING:
The Lion King will be replaced by the Perfect King, W the First. The Perfect King will never admit to mistakes and will call anyone who misunderestimates him a terrorist.

DUMBO:
Dumbo will keep the name, but will morph into a donkey. He will keep repeating things conservatives wish Democrats would say (e.g. “I want to give welfare to terrorists.”). Republicans may not be able to win arguments with actual Democrats, but they always will have the intellectual upper-hand with Dumbo.

OLD YELLOW:
The pooch will be replaced by an aging chickenhawk who will tell other people they are cowards if they don't support the war in Iraq. The chickenhawk will be safely past draft age.

Steve Jobs, CEO
Apple Computer, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014

Dear Mr. Jobs:

I am requesting that you resign your position on the Board of Directors of Disney/ABC in response to their decision to broadcast “The Path to 9/11” a dishonest propaganda piece which makes a mockery of the deaths of Americans and others killed in the 911 terrorist attacks.

Disney/ABC has shown itself desperate to try to deflect attention from the fact that the Bush Administration had more than enough warnings, tools, and resources to prevent the 911 attacks. Instead, Disney is distorting the facts or making them up entirely in an unpaid political ad for the GOP which is worth millions of dollars.

If you remain on the Board of Directors of such an incredibly unpatriotic company as Disney, you will severely damage Apple's corporate image, proving that Apple can be at least as evil as Microsoft.

“The Path to 9/11,” a phony “docudrama” developed by a notorious right-wing extremist, Cyrus Nowrasteh, is creating quite a stir. ABC/Disney seems determined to broadcast this unpaid GOP political advertisement, despite an outcry over its numerous inaccuracies.

The main purpose is to try to let the Bush regime off the hook for its failure to prevent the 911 attacks. The main tactics are to make the Cowardly Lion in the White House look courageous and blame to Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was responsible for some nasty conservative policies (e.g. NAFTA, supporting price gouging on AIDS drugs, welfare "reform," etc.), but his administration took its responsibility to protect the country from terrorism seriously, something the Bush regime still refuses to do.

Here is a smattering of reactions to the ABC/Disney/GOP propaganda film:

Truthout
Commentary by William Rivers Pitt

America Blog
Commentary

Down with Tyranny
Open Letter to ABC

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28)
Critical Press Release

Center for American Progress
Action Alert

The Federal Elections Commission really should launch an investigation into this unpaid GOP political ad worth millions.

I will be doing a posting on this topic soon, and it seems like a good idea to seek out suggestions on who belongs on the list. Here are some nasty corporations that come to mind, in no particular order.

Exxon-Mobil
Wal-Mart
Halliburton
Monsanto
Taser International
GE
News Corp
Disney
Lockhead Martin
Blackwater
Diebold
Various telecoms and cable companies
Best Buy
E-Bay
Microsoft

Please post your suggestions, along with your reasons so I'll know why you think your choices are deserving of such a dubious distinction.

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) is quite effective at exposing corporate media bias and censorship. FAIR has found a wild example of censorship by Disney's ABC. From their 7/16/09 email alert:

The doctor who served as Obama's personal physician for 22 years speaks out about how ABC disinvited him from their healthcare forum two days before the prime-time event where he was planning to ask about single-payer healthcare

The censorship of the far more efficient and just single payer plan is so pervasive in corporate media. It shows that corporate interests trump real news coverage the overwhelming majority of the time in their news outlets.

Here's FAIR's video:



From FAIR's Online Petition:

Reforming the dysfunctional U.S. healthcare system is a major issue in the news these days. The goal of the reform efforts, we're told, is to expand coverage to the uninsured and to reduce costs. But what many experts and citizens see as the most sensible solution to these problems is kept out of the discussion by the corporate media.

Single-payer national health insurance is a model in which healthcare delivery would remain largely private but would be paid for by a single federal health insurance fund (much like Medicare provides for seniors). Single-payer is favored by a majority of Americans and physicians, according to recent polls (New York Times/CBS, 1/11-15/09, Annals of Internal Medicine, 4/1/08).

Yet a recent study by FAIR found that of hundreds of stories about healthcare in major outlets earlier this year, only five stories included the views of advocates of single-payer--none of which appeared on the TV networks. In May, news coverage of the arrests of single-payer advocates showed that practically the only way to get single-payer mentioned in the corporate media is to get thrown out of Senate hearings.

Let's send a message to the networks: The insurance lobbies and many politicians don't want to talk about single-payer. But that makes it all the more important that the media do. Sign our petition to ABC, CBS and NBC, demanding that single-payer be a part of their coverage of the healthcare debate. Add your name below to lend your voice to this effort to broaden the debate over the broken U.S. healthcare system.

Remember the earlier era when we were warned about communism because the media was so heavily censored? The corporate media remind me of Pravda of the days of old.

Please Sign FAIR's Online Petition