Is Jeb Bush pressuring Disney to squelch US distribution of F911?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/05/national/05DISN.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=


May 5, 2004
Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush
By JIM RUTENBERG

WASHINGTON, May 4 ? The Walt Disney Company is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes
President Bush, executives at both Disney and Miramax said Tuesday.

The film, "Fahrenheit 911," links Mr. Bush and prominent Saudis ? including the family of Osama bin Laden ? and criticizes Mr. Bush's actions before and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Disney, which bought Miramax more than a decade ago, has a contractual agreement with the Miramax principals, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, allowing it to prevent the company from distributing films under certain circumstances, like an excessive budget or an NC-17 rating.

...

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....

Sounds like it's time for ANOTHER investigation. How many investigations will that be?

I cancelled my online subscription for Disney Blast and told them to remove my name from their mailing list because of this action taken against Moore.

I mean, Bush talks to God, right - how bad can this be? Moore's just going to talk about how the terriers hate us for our freedoms, geeze.

Harvey Weinstein will stick to it and just sees Disney through all this. It's ridiculous Disney thinks they can step in with regards to a possible political film... maybe if they threw some animation in it they would like it better... the south park guys would be more than happy to lend their time!

And corporate America. It's not looking too hopeful to me. I don't know why he should go through a Disney corporation anyway. It would be a nightmare if Miramax was pressured to hold it until after the election and Moore couldn't take it anywhere. Is that possible? Can Moore pirate his own film somehow?

will pirate their own film, i think Moore is the guy to do it.

I'll never set foot into one of your Parks again if you DON'T show that movie.

<snip>
A senior Disney executive elaborated that the company had the right to quash Miramax's distribution of films if it deemed their distribution to be against the interests of the company. The executive said Mr. Moore's film is deemed to be against Disney's interests not because of the company's business dealings with the government but because Disney caters to families of all political stripes and believes Mr. Moore's film, which does not have a release date, could alienate many.
<snip>

Consider me, my family, my friends, and 51% of the voting public ALIENATED from Disney ...unless you back off and distribute the film!

the backlash would be enormous...

Can you see it now, they allow the film to be shown throughout the world, but will not allow it to be shown here
...

there will be nothing they can do to stop it, but if they do, this country will be ridiculed for its professed freedoms that it trys to suppress, and the damage done by that will be far worse to this administration than if they allowed the movies distribution...

Think about it, the whole world will have the opportunity to see the movied, but they won't allow it in this country. Isn't that what they profess our soldiers are fighting and dying for?

I hate to be pessimistic, but I'll be kind of surprised if they can't stop this one.

Just playing devil's advocate here. :evilfrown:

Think what would happen if Farenheight 911 receive the first prize?

"Forbidden Fruit", banning books, movies, etc. never works. Look at what happened with the Gibson movie, it become more popular than ever

The more they try to cover up something the more people start to wonder. That is why I think it would be quite interesting if they tried to ban it in this country...

is that Moore is a star. A lot more people are on his side. The Bush's can't tar him any more than he's already been tarred. (Or can they? :scared: ) But there's a large contingent of people who have been waiting a log time for this movie. They will be watching what happens to it at Cannes. And they will be very impatient to see it.

Censorship is happening.

This is a movie, which nobody is forced to see. The more they try to keep people from seeing it, the more people will want to see it.

Look at what happened with Janet Jackson's tit? How many people were "so offended", that they constantly had to see it replayed over and over and over agin

This will destroy the "borg"

It is like first amendment jujisju

It seems like you're expecting an awful lot from this movie. Interestingly, it seems that the Bushists might be expecting a lot from it too. :evilgrin:

Or does Disney?

Fits the legal definition of extortion to me.

I think these Bushes truly believe they own the world and can bend anybody to their will, and they are ready to back up their threats with force of a kind.

formed Excalibur Pictures and distributed it through that company.

I'm sure they're going to do something like that for this movie. If not, they'll sell it to someone who will distribute it.

I'm sure that Moore has a contract which doesn't allow Miramax to prevent the distribution of the movie.

Of course I do think of Kids as a Disney pic. ;)

Moore's last movie set a record for documentaries, and I'm sure they're all thinking this one could be a gold mine too. They'll do what they can to create hype.

Of course, the movie is very damaging for Bush and could cost him the election too.

It'll be a fascinating conflict, but I suspect we'll all have a chance to see this movie before election day.

... We could write a new script and shoot our own documentary. We wouldn't need Eisner's permission to distribute it, either.

Hey, Jebthro! FUCK YOU! Hey, Eisner! FUCK YOU, TOO!

Then Disney would be forced to make a move if they wanted to make a dime on it.

http://www.thesyndrome.com/archives/00000812.htm

Let's start it right here and now...

i can see it now. Bill Oreilly calls for boycott of Disney. Jeb calls OReilly asking Bill if he likes his wife and kids. Bill goes on next day "the Boycott has been lifted".

tactics of the bush empire would be predictable and old. You'd think it would backfire by now.

:kick:


This isn't 2000 anymore. we cannot let Jeb get away with this crap anymore!