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May 05, 2004

Disney can't handle the truth

Censorship is alive and well: Corporate welfare daddy supreme The Walt Disney Company is worried about its allowance. Disney, through its ownership of Miramax, is refusing to allow Michael Moore’s new documentary “Fahrenheit 911" to be distributed in the US.

Mr. Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney's chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor.

"Michael Eisner asked me not to sell this movie to (Miramax executive) Harvey Weinstein; that doesn't mean I listened to him," Mr. Emanuel said. "He definitely indicated there were tax incentives he was getting for the Disney corporation and that's why he didn't want me to sell it to Miramax. He didn't want a Disney company involved."

This film details business dealings and other ties between the Bush and bin Laden families. It is not expected to be overly complimentary toward Bush and his handling of 911, Iraq, and other crises of his stolen presidency.

Conservative groups have been hounding Disney for over a year about Miramax’s decision to invest in “Fahrenheit 911".

Miramax wants to distribute the film and they are negotiating with their corporate parent big brother to have the documentary released. The goal here seems to be to delay the film until some time after the November elections.

Michael Moore plans to fight Disney, but first there is Cannes:

There is much more to tell, but right now I am in the lab working on the print to take to the Cannes Film Festival next week (we have been chosen as one of the 18 films in competition). I will tell you this: Some people may be afraid of this movie because of what it will show. But there's nothing they can do about it now because it's done, it's awesome, and if I have anything to say about it, you'll see it this summer -- because, after all, it is a free country.
Posted by Norwood at May 5, 2004 08:01 AM
Comments

GO MICHAEL MOORE!! What a joke it is to continuously attempt to hide the truth from the public. There are so many ways to say it, but the older I get, the more disgraceful the US appears to me. All of this talk about democracy, and this country was founded on racist beliefs. Hey, a slave in every kitchen....right? (very WRONG!!) This country is now being lead by a fundamentalist right-winger who finds it necessary to "do away" with all who are not in his belief system. Books upon books are being written about this crazy so-called president and speakers are making every effort to warn the public about the harm that Bush has and still is causing this country. We were taking big, healthy steps over the decades....centuries....to turn this country into a true democracy and now Bush has come along and turned the clocks back by 1/2 a century or so. The ties that the Bush family has with the Bin Ladin's, etc. are too deep and now WE are paying for any bad blood between the families. (my blood is beginning to boil) This horrible man in the white house must be removed because he is quickly resembling a man from history who knew he could lead his country to believe that the white anglo-saxon-protestant was the only race worthy of living. Hitler. It's such a scary thought....yet it's happening right before our very eyes. Just the way it happened in Germany. And people aren't believing that Bush is capable of less atrocities. Hmmmm.... Shame on anybody who decides that it's better to hide the truth to maintain their very high checking account balance than to look out for others and expose the facts to build a better democracy. Shame on anybody who believes that people don't deserve to live should their beliefs not be parallel. And shame on those who have some odd notion that they deserve to be on some self-proclaimed pedestal just because they believe in the bible, or just because they don't have the ability to think altruistically. Okay, I'm mad. I'm scared. Maybe even rambling a bit. It's so easy to ramble when there is so much unreasonable, irrational behavior.

Posted by: LORI at May 5, 2004 10:18 AM