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I am not a big fan of the House of Mouse. As a stepmother, I bristle at the stereotype they foist upon me. I take issue with ABC, and their news coverage. My kids are basically banned from the Disney Channel, with the exception of Phineas and Ferb. No Wizards of Waverly Place, no Hannah Montanah. ICarly? IDon'tThinkSo. The lessons these shows bring our kids are *not* wholesome. A talking pimple that makes misogynistic comments about young teen girls? On the forehead of a young teen boy? No, thank you. These shows focus on appearance, and in the case of Hannah Montana, we're talking about a girl who has to resort to an alter-ego, because honestly--in today's society a young girl can't possibly just be herself if she's good at something, now can she?
OK, I told myself I wasn't going down that road, and I'm not. While I despise the inundation of show-related products supposedly wholesome programming, my ire is raised today for a different reason. Are you familiar with the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood? This is the organization that filed a class-action lawsuit against Disney, and got them to settle the suit by offering refunds to parents because of the misleading implication that
Baby Einstein videos + Your Kid = Massive Genius/Prodigy in the Making.
This was an enormous victory for CCFC and parents throughout the U.S. Highly marketed videos do not create smarter kids--Pediatricians actually recommend that babies do not have any so called "screen-time," according to the NYT article discussing the settlement. So, while Disney was 'acquiescing' publicly--effectively patronizing the CCFC and the public--they were apparently privately twisting the arm of the non-profit organization that had supported CCFC since it's inception ten years ago.
The Judge Baker Childrens Center has severed their ties to CCFC and unceremoniously kicked them out of their offices. Following the settlement agreement, Disney representatives contacted the JBCC and expressed their upset over the work of the CCFC. So the JBCC booted them, and said as much, according to this NYT article.
The CCFC has not perished, however. Affiliated now with Third Sector New England in Boston, the CCFC released a statement outlining their new partnership, and explaining the lack of communication during their JBCC-imposed gag-order. (The statement is reproduced at the end of the post.)
Here's what pisses me off:
The Walt Disney Corporation could suck up the loss of refunding the Baby Einstein videos with nary a blip on the financial radar screen. It is with that very same financial might that, rather than plunk some dough down for some solid research into how to best harness creativity and critical thinking skills as a method to enhance the intellectual growth of a child's mind, they instead choose to intimidate and threaten a non-profit organization that wasn't supportive of every last element to their for-profit organization.
Which is entirely, utterly repugnant. And so disturbingly representative of the Corporatocracy in which we live today.
Is anyone else as sick of the giant corporations deciding things for us? What's moral? What's ethical? What's appropriate social behavior? What's good business practice? What's good for our families...our communities? Should GE/Disney/ABC be deciding these things for us? I don't want them deciding for me. So, when I see Disney muzzling an organization because they don't like the negative publicity they had to endure as a result of hawking "shiny things" as educational tools, I get furious.
Do you have five bucks? I know I can
