America something happened yesterday that I would have never expected.
As everyone knows Disney/ABC paid $40,000,000.00 for a fake called "The Path to 9/11". The outrage that ran through this country regarding Disney/ABC foisting such a pack of lies on us was almost edible. We fumed & beat our chests, & shook our fists at the Ivory Tower of Power that is Dinsey/ABC to no avail. Disney/ABC were determined to air "TP9/11", because after all they paid $40,000,000 Bucks for this fake & as anyone can tell you, when you spend that kind of money, you better have something to show for that money, even if it is a pig with lipstick.
But, our outrage continued up & down the blogsphere. We wrung our hands, & shouted, because many of us, for a very good reason, felt betrayed by Disney/ABC. Here's why.
(more Below The Fold)
Some years back Disney had decided to allow coverage on their insurance to include the "domestic partners" of their workers. The Christian Right had one big HISSY FIT. After all this meant that the gay workers would now be allowed to cover under their insurance their gay partners. The Christian Right also fumed & shook their fists at the Ivory Tower & screamed "Boycott Disney". But, "real thinking" Americans decided that we would take up the slack for Disney. I remember that year, my husband & I went out of our way to support Disney's decision in our meger way. We bought souvenirs on our visit to Disneyland & we always talked up Disney & what we thought was it's "progressive" ideals. When Disney started putting out movies that were getting it "PG13" or "R" ratings, we went to those movies to show our support of a Disney that was branching out to a wider audience. Regardless of what Michael Eisner did, or the infighting that went on at Disney, we stood by the Disney name.
That all came to tire squealing stop Sunday night as we realized Disney/ABC really did plan on airing "PT9/11" with all of it's lies anyway.
But, what do we do...?? We paced the floor. Blogging didn't seem to be working, even blogging on the Disney site for "PT9/11" didn't seem to be working, because, their "revised clarifications" seemed to show they just didn't get it. They were spreading a pack of lies. A pack of lies designed to hurt, not just the Clinton's, but, other worthy public servants, like Sandy Berger & Madeleine Albright. Two public servants that did not deserve to be lied about for any reason. But, the real people hurt by "TP9/11" were going to be the victims & the surviving family memebers of that horrible day. They were going to see lies about a day that these people knew didn't need to be lied about. There was no way to stop this fake from airing.
But, there was a way to let Disney/ABC know we weren't going to let Disney/ABC get away with it. We were & some of us still are Boycotting Disney/ABC. That meant a Real Boycott.
Here's what we did to Disney/ABC, I stopped watching all of the ABC affiliates. That includes ABC Family Channel, Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Channel, & sadly it includes ESPN 1-2-3-4,(it means most of the college & pro football season is gone for me), & any other Disney/ABC channel, DKIDS & all the rest. But, I'm just a drop in the bucket you say, but, strangely enough, many of you also bit the bullet & stopped watching Disney/ABC affiliates as well. But, it's also a great deal of money from advertisers, because if many of us aren't watching Disney/ABC channels why spend money with Disney/ABC to advertise...??
Then Disney/ABC hit another small bump in the road. That bump...??? The HuffingtonPost Blog. It seems that HuffingtonPost has reported that LICENCEE'S of the Disney name have been using "sweat shop" labor in China to make items to sell here in the U.S.. Now, while Disney/ABC are supposedly not responsible for these LICENCEE'S using the labor force in China as they see fit, would "real thinking" Americans want to buy anything from a Disney store if they knew it was made by "sweat shop" labor, after all the Disney name attached however distantly with "sweat shop" labor, can't be good for the Disney image. But, that's something we will have to judge as Christmas gets closer & adults decide what to get the kiddies.
Next, came people making a decision on how they are going to spend Christmas vacation with the family. As many of you know, for Christmas break many families decide to go to Orlando to Disney World or to the Disney cruise ship, at a cost of about $1500.00 dollars for a week. If just 5 families decide to stay home & not go to either of these places for vacation, the loss to Disney is $7500.00 per week. Now, if just 5 families per week don't go to either vacation spot & say, vacations are staggered over a 3 week period, (because of something called"track schools"); then Disney loses about $22,500.00 per week & that doesn't include all the food & souviners not being bought by visitors. In just a few weeks a Disney Park or cruise ship loses almost a $500,000.00 dollars. Not much you say, a drop in the bucket, maybe, but, for the average American who pays his family's way into being part of the Disney Mystique, it's a lot of money.
But, then I heard on the blogs that some people were actually thinking about dumping their Disney stocks. I said to myself, won't hurt Disney that much, after all what's a few stock options between friends? Then I started to think, well, if Disney loses just .02 cents on 1 share of stock & you multiplied that by a few thousand shares, it wouldn't be that much, except if you owned say, 50,000 shares of Disney stock. But, I didn't expect what happened yesterday. You see Disney's stock started at 25.40 a share & it stayed pretty stagnant until about 2PM in the afternoon, when it started to take a hit. The stock fell almost .10 cents from 25.40 to 25.34. Someone didn't like that, & they tried to boost the stock at about 3:30PM to 25.50, but, by 4PM the writing was on the wall. Disney's stock fell again, .06 cents. .06 CENTS!!! Not much you say, just a drop in the bucket, maybe, except if you owned 50,000 shares.
Take .06 cents & multply that by 50,000 shares, trust me Amreica, Disney lost money yesterday, A LOT OF MONEY.
$40,000,000 bucks on "PT9/11" plus advertising dollars plus your everyday park visitor, plus you everyday souivner buyer, plus your average everyday stock trader. It has cost Disney plenty, to air that tripe, "PT9/11". A generous guess would be about a half a billion dollars, maybe a bit less. I wonder, does Disney think it can afford to be this stupid with it's money anymore?
Can You Hear Me Now Disney/ABC? When you mess with "real thinking" Americans, you're going to get your ass kicked everytime!!!!
America You Showed Moral Fiber Yesterday!!! I Humbly Thankyou.