Disney CEO Drops F-Bomb at Shareholder Meeting

Iger's Nasty Comment to Investor Rooted in 9/11 Miniseries Controversy

Washington, DC - Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger scowled at and said "f--- you" to Tom Borelli, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, at Tuesday's annual Disney shareholder meeting.



Iger's remark came after Borelli told Disney shareholders about Iger's refusal to sell the DVD or the distribution rights of the miniseries "The Path to 9/11."

Borelli had just ended his presentation and was attempting to shake Iger's hand on his way back to his seat. Iger, who was sitting in the audience at the time, also refused to uncross his arms and shake Borelli's hand. Borelli, who had received applause from fellow shareholders after his presentation, went back to the podium and precisely reported to his fellow shareholders what Iger had just said, to gasps from the assembled crowd. Borelli then sat back down.

"The Path to 9/11" is a miniseries based on the federal "9/11 Commission Report." The miniseries aired in 2006 on the Disney-owned ABC television network. The shareholder meeting was held at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California.

"So much for the family-friendly Disney reputation," said Borelli. "Shareholders have a legitimate concern about the political and financial implications of Iger's actions. It wasn't until today that the depths of his contempt were revealed." Read more

Who was blocking 'The Path to 9/11'?

Politico 
By JEFFREY RESSNER
8/21/08

Over the past few years, perhaps no film controversy has inspired more outrage from conservatives than the Walt Disney Company’s handling of the ambitious 2006 miniseries “The Path to 9/11.” In the wake of Michael Moore’s 2004 anti-Bush documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” and the 2003 CBS biopic “The Reagans,” the Disney censorship fiasco has been a frequent bone of contention on right-wing blogs, AM talk radio and other media outlets. In addition to making cuts in its ABC-TV telefilm after complaints from political forces, the company also shelved plans for a subsequent DVD release.

The miniseries, a $40 million dramatization of events leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was set for its network debut when several members of President Bill Clinton’s administration, including former National Ssecurity Adviser Sandy Berger and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, insisted that several scenes were inaccurate or fictitious, and Clinton himself demanded the program be corrected or pulled. Five Democratic senators even sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger that appeared to threaten the company’s broadcast license over the issue. Edits were made, a disclaimer was added and the two-parter ran as originally scheduled, but there has never been a repeat showing and a DVD has never been released. Read full article 

Investor: Disney shelved 9/11 film
By Christian Toto

March 22, 2008
Tom Borelli is so sure the Walt Disney Co. is suppressing the DVD release of the 2006 miniseries "The Path to 9/11" for political reasons that he is ready to put up money to prove the point.

Mr. Borelli, a Disney shareholder, accused Disney CEO Robert Iger at a March 6 shareholders' meeting of blocking the release of "Path" in order to protect Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the legacy of her husband's administration.

Mr. Iger countered at the time that the decision not to release the miniseries on DVD was motivated by business considerations, not political ones.

Mr. Borelli has now told The Washington Times he plans to make an offer to buy the DVD rights to "Path," an Emmy-winning miniseries that prompted fury among Democrats for its depiction of the Clinton administration as dithering and adrift in the face of the growing threat from radical Islamic terrorism. Read full article

New bio reports Clinton told ABC to kill Path to 9/11

...But the really eyebrow-raising story, and the one that may have legs if the primary battle between his wife and Barack Obama stretches into the summer, is how Team Clinton worked hard to kill off the "Path to 9/11" miniseries on ABC in 2006. Though even close advisors to the Clinton Administration have conceded shortcomings in their response to al-Qaeda — so well laid out in Lawrence Wright's magnificent account The Looming Tower — they all went into attack mode after some FOBs saw a preview of the first night of "Path to 9/11." Even though the script was from a veteran TV docudrama writer who had no real axe to grind, and had been reviewed carefully by 9/11 Commission icon Tom Kean, he was quickly demonized as a right-wing hack by Clintonites and their amen corner in the blogosphere. I remember interviewing Kean and finding him not just to be a celebrity endorser of the miniseries but someone who seemed well acquainted with the accounts and descriptions of the two-night commercial-free program. That, of course, was before Team Clinton went to work. Kean's relationship with Clinton was damaged by the "Path to 9/11" fallout.

Most shameful are the performances of Sandy Berger, who called scenes "defamatory" that reenact accounts he had corroborated elsewhere; and Madeleine Albright, who wanted the movie censored without bothering to watch it. As to the claim that Clinton was less than fully focused on world affairs from 1998 to 2000 because he was being distracted by a certain long-running sex scandal ... does anyone NOT believe that? By recounting the events of "Path to 9/11," Felsenthal tells us a lot about Clinton 42 and how its efforts to protect its legacy may ultimately cripple his wife's chances of...

Disney: Politics Before Profits
Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger is blocking the sale of the DVD of the Path to 9/11 - the ABC miniseries based on the 9/11 Commission report.

Brit Hume of FoxNews covered the controversy in the Political Grapevine.

Disney steers clear of 'Path to 9/11'

By Paul Bond
The Hollywood Reporter
March 7, 2008

Top brass at Disney were called on Thursday to defend their decision not to release "The Path to 9/11" on DVD and to justify CEO Robert Iger's $27.7 million pay package.

"Path" was a 2006 ABC miniseries critical of President Bill Clinton's handling of terrorist threats that was so controversial it prompted leading Democrats to ask Disney not to air the program. Disney, after making some hasty edits, ran it commercial-free.

At Disney's annual shareholders' meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., one mutual fund portfolio manager said it was high time Disney turn "Path" into a DVD and recoup some of the $40 million it spent on the project.

The fund manager, Tom Borelli, accused Iger of protecting HIllary Clinton's presidential campaign at the expense of shareholders and pointed out that Iger has been a steady Clinton donor since before the former first lady was elected to the Senate.

He claimed to have a letter from a Lionsgate representative proving that Disney has no intention of even selling the DVD rights to another company.

The "Path" question came shortly after another shareholder objected to foul language and persistent sexual innuendos on such ABC shows as "Ugly Betty" and "Good Morning America," prompting Iger to cite ABC's right of free speech. Borelli demanded to know why Iger seemed more interested in protecting curse words than he was in protecting political speech.

The fund manager noted Disney's reported $46 million profit on "Fahrenheit 9/11," also a politically controversial project -- though far more critical of Republicans than Democrats.

Seemingly taken-aback, Iger assured the shareholder...

Disney Shelves Path to 9/11 Miniseries

Disney is not selling the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11 on DVD because of possible political retaliation.

The cowering of Disney to intimidation by the political "Machine" establishes a terrible precedent and it poses a serious threat to freedom of speech to Disney and the media industry as a whole.  In essence Robert Iger, CEO of Disney, gave the Democratic party control of Disney's programming in this case; and has setup Disney for similar censorship takeovers by political parties.

The ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11 recounted the historical events from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to the tragic events of September 11, 2001 caused an unprecedented negative reaction from leading political figures in the Democratic Party. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dick Durban, for example, urged Disney to cancel the program. Importantly, the letter seemed to threaten Disney's broadcast license by noting that it was conditioned on the company acting as a trustee "in serving the public interest."

Is Clinton's candidacy blocking 'Path to 9/11'?

Screenwriter of docudrama says ABC exec said delay has been prompted by unflattering portrayal of previous administration.

By Martin Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 5, 2007

Among the nearly two dozen television DVDs slated for nationwide release on Sept. 11 is the second season of "Bones," the third season of "Grey's Anatomy" and the miniseries "The Starter Wife" that aired earlier this year. Not on the list on that day or any other in the near future is last year's highly controversial "The Path to 9/11."

The $40-million, five-hour ABC miniseries, which recently received seven Emmy nominations and drew a combined two-night audience of more than 25 million viewers, is for now on the path to nowhere. Its Amazon page reads: "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

With no date for the release, questions are being raised about whether political pressure is behind its current status as a stalled or discarded DVD project. The reasons are murky, but the miniseries' writer, Cyrus Nowrasteh, believes it's crystal clear: Powerful forces are out to protect Bill Clinton's presidential legacy and shield Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) from any potential collateral damage in her bid for the White House. Read more...