Following controversial remarks made by 700 Club host Pat Robertson about Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, as well as other comments, ABC Family moved to distance itself from the program, changing the disclaimers before, during, and after the broadcasts from "The following/preceding program is brought to you by CBN" to "The following/preceding CBN telecast does not reflect the views of ABC Family."The sale to [...] Disney [by Fox, who bought Robertson's Family Channel and renamed it Fox Family Channel] was considered one of the largest mistakes or problems occouring during the tenure of Michael Eisner. The failure was primarily due to the aquisition being done by the strategic planning department of Disney, without consulting anyone at ABC. The original plan was to use the channel to essentially show re-runs of ABC programming, but this plan was completely impossible since ABC had no syndication rights to the majority of their own programs. The next major plan was to reposition the channel to market it to young women or to a more hip audience (under the name XYZ, a reference to ABC), however this was impossible since the company has contracts with cable companies which contain an unbreakable stipulation put in by Robertson that the channel contain the word Family in the name forever, no matter who owns the network.
I think Robertson's a jerk, but he's a shrewd businessman. He's been bought out of the cable business, it was to the tune of many millions, and his show will always have a home.
Even so, I've *never* seen or heard a disclaimer on the airwaves so strongly worded.
From the gay-friendly, anti-nuclear family, liberal bastion at ABC, I understand, though. As I said in another post, even though Pat gets his foot in his mouth so often that he has athlete's tongue, he's not wrong 100% of the time.
As far as the shrewed businessman, I understand (at least at one time) he controlled millions of shares of Ann Taylor (professional clothing for women). And I had heard (never bothered to verfiy) that he is the son of a former US Senator...
I don't watch the show much, since Pat's son often hosts it; and his son does not strike me as the sharpest bowling ball on the rack.
Cheers!