Wednesday, August 19, 2009
A Family Company
For the past two days I have been looking closely at The Walt Disney Company. They are a family company. They own the happiest place on earth, so they tell us. They also own Disney Studios, Touchstone Pictures, Mirimax Films, Pixar Animation Studios, Disney Theme Parks, ABC Television, ABC Family Television, ABC News, The Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPN International, Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records, Lyric Street Records, ESPN Radio, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Zone Theme Restaurants, SOAPnet, Stage 9 Digital Media, Disney Theatricals (producers of Broadway show versions of Disney produced films), and Hyperion Books, along with The Walt Disney Internet Group, which includes Disney.com, Family.com and Movies.com, along with a few other things too numerous to mention here.
I first started paying close attention to The Walt Disney Company when I when I was a child, watching "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the afternoons when I got home from school. I was a big fan of many Disney movies and animation shorts. As I matured I became more of a fan of Warner Bros. animation, then later studied Winsor McKay and Max Fleischer, but that's a subject for another day.
The Walt Disney Company has been having a bit of a losing streak at its Theme Park Division. The economic down turn has reduced the tourism business tremendously and attendance is down. Three fatal accidents in Disney owned theme parks in the last two months in Florida hasn't helped much as well. Disney is, once again, having an image problem.
A few years back their image problem stemmed from an honest desire to protect their brand, which went totally out of control when some lawyer at the corporate office brought suit against a day care center for having a picture of Donald Duck posted in public view, demanding a huge licensing fee. As one might imagine, the public at large didn't take a kind view to a multi-billion dollar behemoth attacking a small preschool over something so trivial as that.
Their latest image problem is just beginning. It has come to my attention that a Disney owned network is about to broadcast a series thought to be family fare, featuring a known criminal. I am, of course, talking about "Dancing with the Stars."
It seems that The Walt Disney Company, ABC Television, and "Dancing with the Stars" believes that Tom DeLay is a star, a role model, and a nice family guy. I'm guessing shooting days of the show will be scheduled in between court appearances. Here are just some of the highlights of his resume:
Misuse of Federal Investigative Agencies: During a legislative conflict in his native Texas, the Congressman, citing the Department of Homeland Security, ordered the FAA to search for an airplane chartered by Texas state representatives and demanded the FBI arrest these same legislators, all Democrats opposed to a redistricting plan to gerrymander the Texas legislature, redrawing district lines to make said districts have a Republican majority. He also attempted to direct the U.S. Marshals, the Texas office of the U.S. Attorney, and the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (a bureau dedicated to stopping smuggling and terrorism operations) in this effort to arrest the group of Democratic legislators.
Reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee: Congressman DeLay spearheaded the K Street Project, an attempt to penalize lobbying companies who hired known Democrats, pressuring the companies to hire only Republicans, effectively creating a blacklist. Restraint of Trade as a political bludgeon.
Just plain meddling in something that was none of his business: The Terry Schiavo case. Congressman DeLay was behind the Palm Sunday weekend convening a quorum of Congress to insert themselves into the Schiavo case. In addition, while speaking about the removal of the unfortunate Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube, Congressman DeLay was accused of endorsing violence in the wake of a series of high-profile violent crimes and death threats against judges when he said, "The men responsible will have to answer to their behavior." DeLay's comments came shortly after the February 28, 2005 homicide of the mother and husband of Chicago Judge Joan Lefkow, and the March 11, 2005 killing of Atlanta Judge Rowland Barnes. After considerable pressure, Congressman DeLay retracted that statement.
Still not fully investigated: The former Congressman is up to his neck in the Jack Abramoff scandal, and that would take weeks of postings to just skim the surface of that mess.
So with such a role model appearing on "Dancing with the Stars," I can't imagine that the former Congressman was the first choice for this role. The producers of "Dancing with the Stars" must have known that using Mr. DeLay could be a bit sticky. Surely there was someone else that has some musical ability and is an equally high profile individual. Someone with charisma and a huge built-in following. But it turns out that Phil Spector is unavailable.
I first started paying close attention to The Walt Disney Company when I when I was a child, watching "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the afternoons when I got home from school. I was a big fan of many Disney movies and animation shorts. As I matured I became more of a fan of Warner Bros. animation, then later studied Winsor McKay and Max Fleischer, but that's a subject for another day.
The Walt Disney Company has been having a bit of a losing streak at its Theme Park Division. The economic down turn has reduced the tourism business tremendously and attendance is down. Three fatal accidents in Disney owned theme parks in the last two months in Florida hasn't helped much as well. Disney is, once again, having an image problem.
A few years back their image problem stemmed from an honest desire to protect their brand, which went totally out of control when some lawyer at the corporate office brought suit against a day care center for having a picture of Donald Duck posted in public view, demanding a huge licensing fee. As one might imagine, the public at large didn't take a kind view to a multi-billion dollar behemoth attacking a small preschool over something so trivial as that.
Their latest image problem is just beginning. It has come to my attention that a Disney owned network is about to broadcast a series thought to be family fare, featuring a known criminal. I am, of course, talking about "Dancing with the Stars."
It seems that The Walt Disney Company, ABC Television, and "Dancing with the Stars" believes that Tom DeLay is a star, a role model, and a nice family guy. I'm guessing shooting days of the show will be scheduled in between court appearances. Here are just some of the highlights of his resume:
Misuse of Federal Investigative Agencies: During a legislative conflict in his native Texas, the Congressman, citing the Department of Homeland Security, ordered the FAA to search for an airplane chartered by Texas state representatives and demanded the FBI arrest these same legislators, all Democrats opposed to a redistricting plan to gerrymander the Texas legislature, redrawing district lines to make said districts have a Republican majority. He also attempted to direct the U.S. Marshals, the Texas office of the U.S. Attorney, and the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center (a bureau dedicated to stopping smuggling and terrorism operations) in this effort to arrest the group of Democratic legislators.
Reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee: Congressman DeLay spearheaded the K Street Project, an attempt to penalize lobbying companies who hired known Democrats, pressuring the companies to hire only Republicans, effectively creating a blacklist. Restraint of Trade as a political bludgeon.
Just plain meddling in something that was none of his business: The Terry Schiavo case. Congressman DeLay was behind the Palm Sunday weekend convening a quorum of Congress to insert themselves into the Schiavo case. In addition, while speaking about the removal of the unfortunate Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube, Congressman DeLay was accused of endorsing violence in the wake of a series of high-profile violent crimes and death threats against judges when he said, "The men responsible will have to answer to their behavior." DeLay's comments came shortly after the February 28, 2005 homicide of the mother and husband of Chicago Judge Joan Lefkow, and the March 11, 2005 killing of Atlanta Judge Rowland Barnes. After considerable pressure, Congressman DeLay retracted that statement.
Still not fully investigated: The former Congressman is up to his neck in the Jack Abramoff scandal, and that would take weeks of postings to just skim the surface of that mess.
So with such a role model appearing on "Dancing with the Stars," I can't imagine that the former Congressman was the first choice for this role. The producers of "Dancing with the Stars" must have known that using Mr. DeLay could be a bit sticky. Surely there was someone else that has some musical ability and is an equally high profile individual. Someone with charisma and a huge built-in following. But it turns out that Phil Spector is unavailable.
