Some Spirited Thoughts on Censorship, China and Bob Iger:
After some interesting conversations today, I think I have a better gauge as to what may have happened and Bob/Willow/Disney's motivations.
First, allow me to explain why this topic fires me up (if you'll indulge me and I know you will). I've had many different hats in media over the last quarter of a century. One that I wore with pride was journalist. When I saw what the industry was becoming in the USA, I got out. The fact is that individuals and corporations are able to and regularly influence what you read and see -- and what you don't. Democracy dies without a free press. And please recall that the NYT and the Washington Post, two of our 'alleged' bastions of fine journalism remaining only covered the NSA/Edward Snowden story reluctantly after the Guardian broke it. Arguably the biggest story in US media since Y2K.
If you can't get your top watchdogs after massive government overstepping the Constitution and people's basic rights and freedoms, then why would you ever not expect TWDC (or any company) to use every weapon in its considerable arsenal (and Willow, a former CNN reporter would be one) to censor opinions that could be deemed very dangerous to its business interests in China. Business interests, which ultimately not only enrich Bob Iger, but his wife who ... is Willow Bay. Very simple here, folks.
To the column itself. I've heard people call it a 'hit piece' on Iger and I'm sorry but I just don't see that at all. Referring to him as ''vanilla on toothpaste'' is the only remote 'shot' I can find and it's a pretty weak one. Again, this was an Op-Ed. A column. The purpose of those is to place (hopefully) reasoned opinions about a subject or subjects out to the masses. That was what was done. If this guy thinks that Bob is struggling in China, which many of us here know to be accurate, that is his right to write. He is an expert on western media and culture in China. He is writing what he knows. I don't see how it's a hit piece.
Now, I do see where Disney is concerned because they are failing miserably over there and have been since they started dredging Penny's Bay into what is now HKDL. Shanghai is a mess on such a massive scope. And, worse, Disney can fake having control of it over here. THR and Variety aren't sending reporters to the Pudong site. Bob can blather all he wants. Well, over here he can ... so long as his Shendi/Communist overlords OK it.
I don't know how many times I've written here about the lack of ONE PHOTO of Bob or Tom Staggs or Jay Rasulo or Philippe Gas etc on the SDL site. There hasn't been one officially released since construction began in 2011. Just think about that. Why is that? Maybe if I bury it here, no one worries (except Dr. Blondie and whomever else is charged with watching over me here). But if a respected media voice who is an expert on China were to state that there are no pics because Shendi won't allow it, how do you think that would play on Wall Street? Or in Burbank? Or hell, on Main Street? Because this park may be viewed as beach head for the Disney BRAND in China by TWDC's publicity machine, but in China the park is viewed as just another massive construction project that is 'China's Disney'. If you haven't lived or worked there, then you probably don't understand that things are just different there.
I don't want to get too far off topic, but there is that massive anti-graft campaign going on now (that was referenced in all of one sentence of the missing, yet all over, HuffPo column). And there is at least an $800 million question mark that Disney/Iger refuses to answer.
What if his recently anointed No. 2, Tom Staggs, has been ... let's just say participating in how you get business done over there? That's the kind of scandal fodder that could easily cost a company billions and send a charmed CEO like Bob Iger to the curb well before his contract expires. Hypothetically, of course.
Anyway, back to the column, you may have noticed that the HuffPo took down its quite libelous statement regarding the writer early today. That I am told is a direct result of a Redstone representative ordering them to do so. A statement, btw, that in my estimation could have only come from Willow herself thru the designated fallguy because THAT was an obvious hit job. A don't read what that writer wrote because he's just big poopyhead. It obviously hasn't worked.
To folks who have questioned why the column was placed, I don't know. I'd reckon and I did, before my source confirmed it, that he explicitly placed his familial connections in his bio, which he was under no obligation to do, so that people would understand his role in media. No one could say there was a hidden agenda when it's right there at the bottom of his columns.
As to what his motivations may be, what the Redstone's motivations might be ... well, that's interesting as well. I'd love to know. But I'd rather see Willow Bay lose her job first. Oh, and I'd also like to see her husband forced to account for every penny of that $800 million that was supposed to go to SDL for added attractions. Why? Because that's the stuff that they so desperately don't want people asking about.
