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The LA Times' holiday movie preview came out today
with a note that it excluded Walt Disney Co. films, including
Thor: Ragnorak, because the company "declined to offer The Times advance screenings, citing what it called unfair coverage of its business ties with Anaheim."
- About a month ago, the
LAT ran a series about the increasingly contentious relationship between Disney and Anaheim. The piece notes that Disney is the major industry in Anaheim and drives its local economy, but after decades of sweetheart tax breaks (including a 45-year exemption from any future entertainment taxes), a parking garage paid for by the city but generating revenue solely for Disney, blocking housing developments, and a repayment structure that prevents surplus revenue from returning to the city's general fund, residents were frustrated by the disparity between the resort district and the rest of the city. A company valued at $154 billion getting handouts while they deal with growing poverty and homelessness isn't popular for some reason. Disney poured $1.22 million into candidates and PACs last November, but ultimately lost the longtime pro-Disney majority on the city council.
- "[I]n a letter to The Times,
the company said that some politically motivated critics in Anaheim 'want to blame Disney for larger socio-economic ills that exist in cities throughout California and across the nation,'” while not considering how corporate tax breaks have vastly contributed to the rise in local tax burden and those socioeconomic ills.
- In the proud tradition of billionaires getting pissy at the tiniest bit of pushback,
LA Times entertainment critics have been blocked from advanced screenings because of other journalists' local political reporting, though they will still cover Disney movies once they come out. This is somewhat alarming for any smaller or solely entertainment-focused pubs who cover a company that owns most of American pop culture. Nothing bad can happen from publications sitting on stories about powerful people out of fear of retribution, right?
SOURCES:
1,
2&
3the story is mostly reporting things that are well-known in Anaheim since it's already affected an election there, and not getting coverage elsewhere, but I guess Disney decided to Streisand it out of sheer dickishness