Free Republic

Walt Disney Co.'s board is expected to name President Robert Iger as its new chief executive shortly, according to a person familiar with the situation. Mr. Iger would succeed longtime chief Michael Eisner, who has announced plans to step down. Disney's board met late Saturday to discuss the CEO search and could announce Mr. Iger's promotion as early as Sunday. The leading external contender in the succession battle, EBay Inc. Chief Executive Meg Whitman, withdrew her candidacy for the position Friday. Having been stripped of his chairman title after a shareholder revolt last year, Mr. Eisner announced plans to depart...

Walt Disney is to promote its $100 million adaptation of C S Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a "Passion of the Christ for kids" in an attempt to secure worldwide Christian support for the film. Disney executives have organised private meetings with several church groups in America to emphasise the themes of Christian redemption and sacrifice contained in the film, which will open in December with an all-star cast. They have also hired a public relations company to market the film directly to Christian groups to ensure that the powerful evangelical movement, which is particularly strong...

The Aviator on National Review Online E-mail Author Send to a Friend <% printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version February 25, 2005, 3:14 p.m. Howard Hughes's Last HurrahWhat The Aviator misses. by John Meroney Fifty-three years ago this week, Howard Hughes found himself locked in a battle against powerful political forces he believed were bent on undermining the free-market system. The billionaire industrialist, airplane manufacturer, and filmmaker became so passionate about the fight that he summoned all his emotional and physical strength to overcome a crippling fear of the public so he could make his case for what he saw as...

In a new video to be distributed to 61,000 schools across the nation, homosexual activists are using popular children's TV characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Barney the dinosaur to surreptitiously indoctrinate young children into their lifestyle, a pro-family activist group charges. SpongeBob Squarepants is one of the popular children's TV characters appearing in a new 'tolerance' video. Based on the 1970s hit song "We Are Family," the video will be distributed to public and private elementary schools nationwide March 11, along with lesson plans for teachers, points out the American Family Association. The distribution, sponsored by FedEx, will coincide...

Year In Review: Entertainment Industry (Originally published on May 25, 2004) A Christian activist group has developed a three-point strategy to warn unsuspecting families coming to Orlando, Florida, about the very family-unfriendly homosexual pride festival known as "Gay Days at Walt Disney World." The Christian Action Network (CAN) is engaging in an all-out effort to inform families, school groups, and others of what they can expect from the homosexual event long before they enter the so-called Magic Kingdom. The group plans to use literature, road signs, and even a mobile advertisement to get the word out about the offensive and...

Mommy, have I done something wrong?            Andrea Yates was the mother of five beautiful, innocent children. She drowned them all in a bathtub and we are supposed to feel sorry for her. When her seven year old son saw his baby sister lying lifeless on the floor of the bathroom, he asked if she was all right, to which Andrea answered, “get in the tub”, Noah ran, but not far enough or fast enough. The last words he spoke just before his mother drowned him in the bathtub was: “Mother, have I done something wrong?”          I say we are...

Is anyone else trying to watch the Christmas programming on "ABC Family"? There are several good programs on, many of them are the old Clay-mation Christmas shows that I remember from my childhood. And before I get bashed for not knowing that Jesus is the reason for the season, I do. But I also know that these are good, wholesome classics and are a Christmas tradition in my family. The problem is: nearly every commercial break contains a plug for the "ABC Family" show "Degrassi High", which appears to be aimed at teenagers and has at least one positively-portrayed gay...

The nation's chief media regulator expressed disappointment Wednesday over the steamy locker room opening to ABC's "Monday Night Football" broadcast. AP Photo "I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," said Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites). ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. The opening, which has generated complaints to ABC and the FCC (news - web sites), featured actress Nicollette Sheridan in the locker room, supposedly dressed only in a white towel. She drops the towel and jumps into the arms of Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens. Sheridan was shown only...

In a deal it hopes will produce a trove of new properties to exploit across various media, Walt Disney Co. has bought the assets of CrossGen Entertainment, a comic book publisher whose fantasy and sci-fi titles include "Abadazad," "Mystic" and "Route 666." Terms were not disclosed. The acquisition of the more than two dozen titles comes as Disney is set to launch a TV series in the United States based on "W.I.T.C.H.," a comic magazine for tween girls that debuted in 2001 in Italy. Disney says "W.I.T.C.H." is now the fourth-largest magazine in the world in terms of international editions....

...[T]he TV networks... say they have revamped the way they collect and analyze polling data, using more sophisticated equipment and better communications. To tone down their competitive instincts in "calling" states for either candidate, some are blocking their news desks from watching rivals' shows. All the networks are also striving to get their respective "decision desks" -- the units that make the calls -- to work more closely with the producers and reporters.... CBS News said the computers VNS used weren't sophisticated enough to compare voting data with historical information and were incapable of raising red flags where they were...

Walt Disney, which refused to distribute Michael Moore's controversial Fahrenheit 9/11, is using the Fourth of July holiday to launch a feelgood feature film about the American people. Borrowing a tactic from the grassroots campaign that made Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ a surprise hit, the media giant has used early screenings for select groups and is encouraging people to "spread the word" about the patriotic film, with invitations, posters, and guidelines for group outings on its website. America's Heart & Soul, which opens today on 100 screens across the US, offers a flag-draped look at the country....

On the June 2 NBC Nightly News, Brokaw announced: "An award- winning film about President Bush and his team, by documentarian and liberal activist Michael Moore, will show up in American theaters after all. The Walt Disney Company at first refused to release the film for political reasons, so a separate partnership was formed headed by the Weinstein brothers of Miramax Films. They began publicizing the film, Fahrenheit 9/11, today with selected clips." NBC viewers were then treated to film excerpts with a fast- paced rock musical background. Bush in black tie at a podium at a dinner: "This is...

(AgapePress) - A Christian activist group has developed a three-point strategy to warn unsuspecting families coming to Orlando, Florida, about the very family-unfriendly homosexual pride festival known as "Gay Days at Walt Disney World." The Christian Action Network (CAN) is engaging in an all-out effort to inform families, school groups, and others of what they can expect from the homosexual event long before they enter the so-called Magic Kingdom. The group plans to use literature, road signs, and even a mobile advertisement to get the word out about the offensive and often X-rated goings on at the Walt Disney World...

The long-dreaded 2004 Olympics in Greece will be the ultimate crossroads for sports and politics in this new and vicious century. The recent photos of cruelty at the Abu Grahaib all-american prison in Baghdad have taken care of that. Yes, sir. We have taken the bull by the horns on this one, sports fans. These horrifying digital snapshots of the American dream in action on foreign soil are worse than anything even I could have expected. I have been in this business a long time and I have seen many staggering things, but this one is over the line. Now...

NewsBlues.com is reporting [no free link] that Sinclair Broadcast Group has ordered its ABC-affiliated stations not to carry tomorrow's "Nightline," which will air the names and photos of soldiers who have been killed in combat in Iraq. Sinclair General Counsel Barry Faber tells the site: "We find it to be contrary to the public interest." The boycott will affect eight ABC-affiliated Sinclair stations.

I saw a commercial for next Friday's edition of 20/20 last night. The ad consisted of something that just left me stunned and unable to form any words, save one. The ad is plugging a story helmed by Barbara Walters. This is the gist of it: Five couples are vying to adopt a single baby. Of course, only one will be able to, and four others will be heartbroken. Who will the mother choose? This was followed by a shot of the four couples standing behind Walters and the mother, holding her baby, and Walters saying something along the lines...

A Los Angeles judge on Monday delivered the first good news Walt Disney has had this year when he dismissed a 13-year-old multimillion-dollar lawsuit over its rights to exploit Winnie the Pooh and his 100-Aker Wood associates. "It is all over," said Disney lawyer Daniel Petrocelli. The ruling appeared to end a colourful struggle over a group of Disney's most profitable film, merchandise and theme park characters that had stirred allegations of skullduggery on both sides. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the entertainment group warned that losing the case would have cost it hundreds of millions...

<p>How to even begin criticizing the idea behind The Swan, Fox's new reality show that finds unhappy women and offers them a combo of plastic surgery, life coaching, therapy and a beauty-pageant finale, as they compete for our entertainment all the while?</p>

Network has produced another show loaded with liberal theologians and permeated with a sense of unbelief. Peter Jennings is at it again. The "ABC World News Tonight" anchor is the driving force behind Monday night's three-hour network special "Jesus and Paul -- the Word and the Witness." Like "The Search for Jesus," a previous ABC special Jennings shepherded, the new show is filled with "expert" analysis from liberal theologians and carries the underlying worldview of unbelief in Scripture and Jesus' divinity. "Jennings repeatedly refers to 'the Jesus movement' as if it were just another political party or faction," Focus on...

I don't do this very often, so forgive me. I was watching the ABC program tonight on Donald Rumsfeld at 8 P.M. EST. Right in the middle of the show, here appears Richard Clarke, and down in the corner is the little ABC logo with the words ABC (SOMETHING) CONSULTANT. (Not sure what TYPE of consultant, but definitely CONSULTANT.