BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Wednesday, May 05, 2004
MEDIA CONSOLIDATION IN THEORY
AND IN PRACTICE. The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg
reports
today that Disney is trying to renege on a deal to distribute Michael
Moore's latest documentary, Fahrenheit 911, which "harshly
criticizes President Bush." The deal between Disney's Miramax
division and Moore was blasted by right-wingers at the time that it
was announced last year. Example: this screed
at FrontPageMag.com.
So what happened between then and
now? According to Rutenberg's piece, it appears to be a matter of one
hand not knowing how much cash the other hand was hauling in. He
writes:
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.
Eisner denies the
allegation.
Still, this is sleazy,
reprehensible stuff, just one step short of dictating to ABC News
what sorts of stories it may or may not cover based on Disney's
corporate interests. Moore does not enjoy a great reputation for
accuracy,
but this isn't about journalism, it's about business. Eisner ought to
be ashamed of himself, but I suspect that's not an option.
ATROCITIES REDUX. To listen
to John O'Neill and his merry band of Kerry-bashing veterans, you'd
think that atrocities never took place during the Vietnam War. In
yesterday's Wall Street Journal, O'Neill wrote:
John Kerry slandered
America's military by inventing or repeating grossly exaggerated
claims of atrocities and war crimes in order to advance his own
political career as an antiwar activist. His misrepresentations
played a significant role in creating the negative and false image
of Vietnam vets that has persisted for over three decades.
...
During my 1971 televised debate
with John Kerry, I accused him of lying. I urged him to come forth
with affidavits from the soldiers who had claimed to have
committed or witnessed atrocities. To date no such affidavits have
been filed.
Michael Kranish reports
in today's Boston Globe on yesterday's news conference by the
anti-Kerry Swift Veterans for Truth.
What everyone seems to have
forgotten is that, last month, the Toledo Blade won a
Pulitzer
Prize for its investigative
reporting into atrocities committed by US troops in Vietnam in the
late 1960s. The Blade found that "[w]omen and children
were intentionally blown up in underground bunkers. Elderly farmers
were shot as they toiled in the fields. Prisoners were tortured and
executed - their ears and scalps severed for souvenirs. One soldier
kicked out the teeth of executed civilians for their gold
fillings."
Atrocities did occur. Kerry knew it
when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in
1971, and the Blade filled in many of the details 32 years
later. Given the horrors
of Abu Ghuraib, denial of past abuses is not a moral
option.
LEHIGH BLASTS SEVERIN. The
Globe's Scot Lehigh has written two fine columns on Jay
Severin, the "towelhead"-bashing talk-show host at WTKK Radio (96.9
FM). Here's today's;
here's last
Friday's.
Here's my
take on Severin, from last
Thursday's Phoenix.
posted at 9:38 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
