Cheesed Off At The Mouse

On Eschaton Wednesday, Atrios suggested (in light of the furor of the make-believe 9/11 movie Disney/ABC is STILL planning to air over two nights starting this weekend) that it’s time to look a little deeper into the background of “the great man” himself.

Digby followed up on this way sooner than I am doing now, but please allow me to toss an anvil or two in the direction of the originator of the most popular cartoon rodent the world has ever seen.

As noted from this link, the production “Mickey Mauschwitz, The Reactionary Politics of Walt Disney” is out there somewhere in videocassette (I couldn’t find it on Amazon, so I don’t know where it could be actually). In part, it references a book called “Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince” by Marc Eliot.

There is apparently some questionable sourcing going on especially concerning personal details of Disney’s life in the Eliot book, but I think what emerges loud and clear is this:

- The Hollywood Film Industry began with “the Trust” formed by Thomas Edison in 1910, who created “mostly esoteric, non-narrative, silent motion picture ‘studies’” and felt greatly threatened by the emerging street-corner nickelodeons, which, to Edison, were “peddling trash” from “Jewish profiteers” (a sentiment shared by Henry Ford, among other leaders of industry).

- Edison, through both gangsterism and monopolistic marketing practices, strong-armed the nickelodeons in the name of “preserving the country’s morals” (sound familiar?).

- Walt Disney began his legendary career with Mickey Mouse (originally Steamboat Willie), who was seen as the perfect, “Christian” antidote to “amoral” Hollywood. In keeping with the practices of Edison and other studio chiefs, Disney was very anti-labor in his business dealings.

- Though an ardent anti-Communist, there is some evidence of an interest, if not an actual relationship, on the part of Disney with American Nazi sympathizers, even telling filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (Hitler’s propagandist and an accomplished filmmaker in her own right, actually) that “he admired her work, but if he hired her, it would damage his reputation.”

- Disney also became a friend to former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover when Disney’s testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) helped add to the movie industry blacklist of Roy Brewer, head of the IATSE (the mob-dominated International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees) and a close friend of Ronald Reagan. Brewer helped Disney win concessions from the Cartoonists Guild in 1947, hurting the guild’s ability to dictate studio policy.

- Disney was also promoted by the FBI to the title of Special Agent in Charge contact, enhancing his political power against his professional associates. Hoover wanted to capitalize on Disney’s involvement with network television (though there was some controversy between the FBI and Disney over a two-minute tour of the FBI’s headquarters added to a “Mickey Mouse Club” episode which was eventually resolved personally by Hoover).

And aside from this, the Disney company doesn’t seem to have a problem blocking a film that conflicts with its political agenda, does it?

So to anyone out there who believes that the scheduling of a fiction like “The Path to 9/11” is totally opposed to the philosophy of Walt Disney and the fault exclusively of the current heads of Disney and ABC Television, I should point out that it is not. Quite the opposite is true, actually.

Walt Disney made his name in part by shilling for corporate interests and conservative government in this country at the expense of the working men and women and families that comprised his audience. Since his name is attached to the company that seeks to deprive the truth to the citizens of this country while trying to help an intellectually deprived and morally bankrupt conservative regime hold onto power (make no mistake – this, first and foremost, is an election-year, “Repug fear-and smear” stunt), it’s safe to say that he’s doing it again.