Bowling for Columbine film maker Michael Moore has a new movie that bashes George W. Bush for actions he took both before and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and for Bush ties to the bin Ladens, but you may have to travel to France to see it.
Walt Disney Company executives have banned Miramax from distributing the film, Fahrenheit 9/11, in the United States because Michael Eisner, Disney’s chief executive, believes showing the film “would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush’s brother, Jeb, is governor,” the New York Times reports.
“He (Eisner) definitely indicated there were tax incentives he was getting for the Disney corporation and that’s why he didn’t want me to sell it to Miramax. He didn’t want a Disney company involved,” said Ari Emanuel, Moore’s agent.
Disney owns Miramax and claims the right to stop distribution of films that may be against the company’s interests. An unidentified Disney executive denied tax breaks are involved and said the company just doesn’t want “to be dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle.”
Overseas rights already have been sold to a number of companies, the Times said. Moore will present the film at the Cannes film festival this month.
A four paragraph cut of the Times’ story on the Orlando Sentinel’s web site at 10:30 a.m. does not mention tax breaks for the Magic Kingdom.
According to an April 4 AP story by Allen G. Breed and Martha Mendoza, Disney receives a farming tax break on 1,600 acres of pasture, timber and nurseries at Disney World. The land, worth $194 million, is taxed as if it were worth $12.3 million.