Aw, damn. Not Uncle Walt, too...!

One of the fondest memories of my childhood in the late 1950s and well into the 60s was sitting down to watch “The Wonderful World of Color,” the Walt Disney family program that came on every Sunday evening at 7 p.m. It was, to my young mind, as magical as it could be.

One of my favorite parts of that program was when Uncle Walt himself sat in his office, surrounded by the accoutrements of adulthood – but also with Mickey Mouse – and talked to us kids.

I can’t recall now what he said – it was far too long ago, and I was too young – but my memory is of warm and gentle words, spoken with love and what seemed like genuine care and concern for his young audience.

Uncle Walt would never, ever lie to us.

Well, Walt Disney is long gone. I’d like to think he’s rolling in his grave over the current ugliness Disney and its affiliate, ABC TV are embroiled in. But the cynic in me wonders if maybe kind old Uncle Walt might have gone right along if he’d been around today, given the huge sums of money involved. The figure $40 million – the amount ABC has already spent on producing the propaganda and disseminating it to rightwing media outlets – comes to mind.

Yes, money talks.

What’s it about? Rightwing propaganda, no less, a 6-hour miniseries called “The Path to 9/11.” It’s a “docudrama” filled with misinformation, historical revision and outright lies that cast culpability and blame on the Clinton Administration and Democrats for 9/11. It’s about to be broadcast over the airwaves on the evenings of Sept. 10 and 11, just in time for the fifth anniversary of that terrible day and, incidentally, just two short months before the November election.

You know. The one the Republicans’ heads are on fire over.

You’ve no doubt heard about the whole thing. If you haven’t, take a few minutes of your time to go read this.

Update: So much for the Magic Kindgom. I never knew this before, but Uncle Walt was a Communist baiter, (see the post, "The American Scene," on Digby's Hullabaloo) looking to bust the unions that were forming in the Hollywood studios, his included. He and the other Red-baiters of his time ruined countless lives, and for what?

Profit.

Is it possible to OD on outrage? I think I just did.

Want more? Read this, too.