Letters

Comments (0) Thursday, Jun 22 2000

ONCE UPON A TIME

Re: "California Misadventure," June 9: This Jim Hill guy gets around! He's been in meetings between Walt Disney and Jack Wrather, obviously, since he knew that "Disney was near tears." He must have direct knowledge of conversations between Michael Eisner and Gary Wilson as well as being privy to specific details of business negotiations between Disney and Wrather Corp. Conversations between Michael Eisner and Paul Pressler? Hill was there! An Aspen meeting? Hill was there! He knows all kinds of closed-door information on Disney and just wants to tell the true, untold story.

Mr. Hill, what a great job you have! You can sit down and write whatever you want with whatever spin you care to create using lines like "Several veteran Imagineers have reportedly warned Disney management that DCA, as it is currently designed, is a seriously flawed theme park." Who are these cloaked veteran Imagineers? Is there any credence to a statement like "reportedly warned"? Reportedly? By whom? "Seriously flawed"? That's a pretty strong statement in an entertainment business that has hundreds of people who are experts in the field to keep track.

Disney's a great story, isn't it? Put Mickey on the cover with a cigarette, and you've got readers! Sprinkle your "creative-writing project" with statements concerning Disney's, Eisner's and even Whoopi Goldberg's thoughts, feelings and statements, for which you have no knowledge or basis, and you have an attention grabber. Then add pure fiction, misstatements and "reliable sources," and you have yourself the true, untold story, don't you?

Julie Carlson
Laguna Niguel Jim Hill responds: Sometimes the truth hurts, Julie. Or is it just that, as a dedicated Disney dweeb, you have trouble accepting any tale that doesn't begin with "once upon a time"? I'm sorry you have a hard time with anonymous sources, but the Mouse has this habit of punishing employees who speak out against the company's plans and policies. As important as I felt it was to get out the real story about Disney's California Adventure (DCA), I certainly wasn't willing to jeopardize anyone's job at Disneyland and Walt Disney Imagineering to do it. This, by the way, is standard practice for articles dealing with sensitive information; does the name "Watergate" mean anything to you? As for the story about Disney and Wrather, that's what we call "research." You go to the Disney Archives, you interview veteran Imagineers-Walt's contemporaries in 1955-and get their take on what happened. Same with the Wilson and Wrather Corp. negotiations. By the way, you seem to think I'm the only writer expressing concerns with Disney's Anaheim expansion plans. Wrong. BothThe Wall Street Journal andThe Motley Fool have recently taken issue with Disney's new "the bottom line is our top priority" corporate philosophy. Once DCA opens in early 2001, you can anticipate a slew of similar stories in the media about this botched project. I imagine you'll be very busy this time next year, writing irate letters defending Mickey's honor.IRONY OR CRAP?

I would like to begin by pointing out the factual error in Alison M. Rosen's story "Don't Believe the Hype" (Music, June 9). Psychopathia Sexualis, the Makers' previous CD, was released on Estrus Records and not Sub Pop. I'd be interested to find out why she thought anything different, since neither the CD nor the bio listed Sub Pop as the label that released Psychopathia Sexualis. The second error is, yes, Estrus is known as being a cool, indie label. Which of course makes it all the more a target for disgruntled bands and critics to dis. I'm not sure what world Rosen is living in where everybody kisses their ass-unless she's speaking from personal experience and has done some quality brownnosing on behalf of herself or her sorry excuse for a band, the Angoras.

Rosen has the opportunity to waste 500 to 750 words on a useless rant about what is in her opinion wrong with music critics. The irony here-and we know she knows irony-is that she has done essentially what she is ranting about: talking endlessly about nothing at all.

E. Arteaga
via e-mail Alison M. Rosen responds: Do you have an opinion about the Makers or do you just have your panties in a bunch because I expressed mine in a fashion that didn't please you? The real irony is that you (lone long-winded buttmunch) have done exactly what YOU accuse me of: you've rambled on about nothing. I, on the other hand, neither rambled about nothing nor accused critics of doing so. I accused critics of being afraid to admit to disliking an album they're "supposed" to like and therefore saying the album is ironic instead of just shitty. Oh, by the way, you dropped something. [Rosen reaches down and picks something up off the floor. It's her middle finger.]LOVES THE REG

Your story on some journalists within The Orange County Register complaining about too much coverage of Latinos and Asians ("Too Nice to Minorities," June 9) hit the crux of the problem: newspapers too often define "general audience" as white.

In the early years, general audience was defined by "newspapermen" as stories that appealed to men. Stories of primary interest to women were relegated to the back pages or not covered at all.