Free Republic

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.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - Caterpillar and the Walt Disney Co. settled a trademark infringement lawsuit Thursday that claimed a direct-to-DVD comedy released last year taints the heavy equipment maker's image. Terms of the settlement were not revealed in a brief order approved by a federal judge. Caterpillar and Disney, which have been partners in other business projects, issued statements saying the deal was "amicable." Spokesmen for both companies declined further comment. The Peoria, Ill.-based manufacturer sued last fall, alleging that the live-animated sequel "George of the Jungle 2" tarnished Caterpillar's reputation because its trademark yellow earth-moving equipment is linked to...

The events of September 11th, 2001, - tragically, after only two years - have become a joke. We need look no further than jolly old England for one example. In a story from the "This Is London" on-online edition from over the weekend, I read where about a sculpture featuring Mickey Mouse (that's M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E) flying a plane into the World Trade Center. Quoting the article: “Entitled 'Mickey's Taliban Adventures', the sculpture, by Alan Bennie of the Edinburgh College of Art, shows Mickey flying a toy plane into foam-like recreations of the WTC. The buildings have eyes to give them...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A media watchdog group is accusing ABC News of biased coverage about abortion and the March for Life, where more than 100,000 people gathered to mourn the Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortion. While ABC on Thursday night gave a few seconds of air time to Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark's clarification of his position in favor of abortion, it blacked out any coverage of the March for Life. Instead, ABC's web site featured two articles with a decidedly pro-abortion viewpoint, notes Jessica Anderson of the Media Research Center. "'Christian Terrorists': Anti-Abortionist Calls for Violence, Says...

The Family Pride Coalition announced it has picked Father's Day weekend, June 17-20, for its first-ever gathering at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. "This official Family Pride event...has been specially designed for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) parents and their families," the group said in a press release. The Family Pride gathering will take place two weeks after "Gay Days" at Disney World -- an annual June event since 1991. Family Pride said its weekend will include a welcome reception, educational workshops presented by the Family Pride Coalition, a family dance, a kids' night out, family brunches, the...

Welcome to Save Disney.com. This website is devoted to those concerned about the welfare of The Walt Disney Company and its future direction. Stan Gold and I plan to use this site as a central information location as we begin to restore Disney to its position as the preeminent entertainment company in the world. We have also provided a mechanism for all interested parties to provide ideas, comments, concerns and input, and we sincerely hope that you will communicate with us. I thank you for your concern about this wonderful Company founded by my father and uncle more than 80...

<p>Walt Disney Co. Vice Chairman Roy E. Disney submitted his resignation from the company board on Sunday and called for Disney Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Eisner to step down from his own positions.</p> <p>Mr. Disney, nephew to the late Walt Disney, sent Mr. Eisner a tough three-page letter severely criticizing his leadership during the past seven years. "It is my sincere belief that it is you who should be leaving and not me," Mr. Disney wrote. "Accordingly, I once again call for your resignation or retirement."</p>

For centuries, people have puzzled over lemmings, the northern rodents whose populations surge and crash so quickly and so regularly that they inspired an enduring myth: that lemmings commit mass suicide when their numbers grow too large, eagerly pitching themselves off cliffs to their death in a foamy sea. Scientists debunked that notion decades ago. But they have never been certain what causes the rapid boom-and-bust cycles that gave rise to it. Now, in a study of collared lemmings in Greenland, being published today in the journal Science, a team of European researchers report that the reason has nothing to...