Paul Harvey is a Fucker

Apparently, Paul Harvey's home-spun, "aw shucks, if everyone would just pull themselves up by their bootstraps like when I was a boy, America wouldn't be in such a world of hurt" approach to broadcast journalism has won him the favor of Disney. Take note of these comments Harvey shared with his listeners earlier this year, as related in FAIR's online journal:

We didn't come this far because we're made of sugar candy. Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and across this continent by giving smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans. That was biological warfare. And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever.

And we grew prosperous. And yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves. So it goes with most great nation-states, which--feeling guilty about their savage pasts--eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry up-and-coming who are not made of sugar candy.

As FAIR pointed out: keep in mind that this award is being bestowed by the same Disney Corp. that found Fahrenheit 9/11 too inimical to Disney's family-friendly brand to allow its subsidiary, Miramax, to release it. Genocide, pre-emptive nuclear war and slavery are not similarly encumbered apparently.

You know, I take a lot of shit from my friends for being a real stick-in-the-mud when it comes to my disdain for Disney. I find their business model--focus your marketing efforts on children 10 and younger, cross-market your product with the help of junk food outlets like McDonalds--morally deplorable. They may be no more perverse or depraved than any other corporation, but because they so unabashedly prey upon the impressionable young, their approach really sticks in my craw. So hearing that they're cool with giving Paul fucking Harvey an award, while censoring their own subsidiary company's ability to distribute a timely, politically-charged documentary that happens to take a contrary position to that of the board, well, I feel pretty good about shunning Disney at every opportunity I get.