DISNEY BENDS THE KNEE

Don’t blame ABC - a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company - for the surrender to Trump announced Saturday night.

This is proof that Mauschwitz (as many of we Hollywood writers call Disney, aka the Maus Haus) “learned their lesson” going against DeSantis in Florida over taking a political stance that MAGA dislikes.

Reason 10,950,781 why I hate fucking Disney:

On March 10, 2024, in an episode of ABC’s “This Week,” George Stephanopoulos said to Rep. Nancy Mace, “Donald Trump has been found liable for rape by a jury. Donald Trump has been found liable for defaming the victim of that rape by a jury. It's been affirmed by a judge.”

Technically, according to archaic New York law regarding the definition of rape as penile penetration of a vagina, Trump wasn’t found liable for rape. He was found liable for the sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll.

In dismissing Trump’s motion for a new trial in July of 2024, Judge Kaplan wrote “And since the jury’s answer to Question 1 demonstrates it was unconvinced that there was penile penetration, the only remaining conclusion is that it found that Mr. Trump forcibly penetrated her vagina with his fingers – in other words, that he ‘raped’ her in the sense of that term broader than the New York Penal Law definition.”

Trump sued for defamation, threatening to ban ABC from the White House and promising to try to get their broadcast license revoked.

And that’s when the Walt Disney Company decided to fold. Bob Iger agreed to pay Trump a $15 million bribe, er, I mean “donation” to his presidential library fund as part of a defamation lawsuit settlement that will allow them to maintain White House access. (The illiterate moron who never read anything before or after he became president is going to have a presidential library? Filled with what? Truth Social tweets? The stolen top secret files he keeps in his Motel A Lardo bathroom?) Given Trump’s history with non-profits and the complete lack of any plan for a presidential library, this looks more like a payoff to another of his slush funds than a charitable donation.

Disney agreed that ABC will also add a note at the bottom of articles about the allegedly defamatory on-air comments Stephanopoulos made, that reads, “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”

When the news broke that Disney chose to settle Trump’s defamation lawsuit against it and George Stephanopoulos, top Democratic lawyer Marc Elias wrote on X, “Knee bent. Ring kissed. Another legacy news outlet chooses obedience.”

Joyce Vance wrote on Bluesky that she was “old enough to remember—and to have worked on—cases where newspapers vigorously defended themselves against defamation cases instead of folding before the defendant was even deposed.” “That, by the way, includes defamation cases brought by candidates for the presidency,” she added.

What is stunning is the fact Disney didn’t call Trump’s bluff, as every other organization has done when he attempted to sue for defamation. Donald Trump doesn’t want to be deposed; when the target of one of his lawsuits doesn’t cave to his bluster, Trump always backs off and drops the suit before he can be deposed. Had he been deposed this week, he would have faced public questioning about the many other women who have accused him of sexual misconduct and rape, and would either have been forced to answer truthfully or been charged with perjury. He has never made it through a deposition successfully, since he is incapable telling the truth if a gun was held to his head. All ABC had to do was agree to see him in court and begin the process of evidence gathering through depositions and evidentiary hearings.

The controlling precedent would have been New York Times v. Sullivan. To win, Trump - who fits the definition of a “public figure” - would have to establish at trial both that the statement was false and that it was made with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity; this is the “actual malice” standard for defamation cases.

Disney’s decision means that Trump can now shake down any member of the media that he wants through threats to take away their access. Disney chairman Bob Iger has now bent his knee to Trump, and the message has been sent to all other mainstream media organizations that talking about things like the 34 felonies Trump has been convicted of or all the other crimes he has found liable for will get them in trouble because there will be retribution.

By obeying in advance in their race to the bottom, the worthless pissants of corporate media have revealed their true colors, and they are no longer hiding it. They hate democracy. They care only about protecting their billionaire backers. It’s been that way for a while now. But now they flaunt it in our faces.

As Joyce Vance wrote today, “A settlement before the evidence is even on the table, and one for such a large amount, three times the verdict against Trump in the first of the two Carroll cases, doesn’t make a lot of sense from a strictly legal perspective. That suggests something else is going on here, and it’s deeply concerning if that something is that ABC, a major news organization, has decided to curry favor with the incoming president instead of sticking to its guns.”

So now we have Markie Fuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong surrendering in advance to Trump. To that list of Vichy defeatists we can now add Disney Chairman Bob Iger. It’s for sure this decision was made in his office on the top floor of the main Disney building at the Burbank studio, not over across the lot at the ABC offices.

Don’t go visit Disneyland or Disney World. Drop the Disney-plus streamer. Stop watching those stupid fucking Star Bores movies and the rest of the Disneyfied comic book crap they make. Send the Mauschwitz Motherfuckers a message in the only language they understand.

It would be very helpful if free subscribers would step up and become Paid Subscribers. The rent and security increase are still set to start on New Year’s Day here at TAFM. Consider it a Holiday present to support Opposition.

Thank you very much to those who have already done so.

Comments are for paid subscribers.