Read 'Team Rodent' by Carl Hiaasen to learn how the Rat has taken over a county in Florida.

@2: The issue isn't that the LA Times stopped getting advanced screenings to Thor 3. The issue is that Disney threw a hissy fit when the LA Times published something about it that it didn't like (but couldn't demonstrate was incorrect) and tried to retaliate by singling it out and denying it the access it gives other newspapers.

This issue should very much concern you, Mr. John Q. Public, because a free press is a cornerstone of a free society. Today a company tries to retaliate for an unflattering story by taking a newspaper off its press screener list. Tomorrow, they refuse to allow reporters from that publication any access at all, and eventually scare off any other outlets that might want to publish something negative about them. It's a great result for the corporation but a shitty one for us citizens.

Ever think sometimes that corporations have a fiduciary duty to the shareholders to not be evil? At least not cartoonishly evil. This Mr. Burns type shit harms shareholder value. Obviously.

Obviously, Disney!

While conservatives and six year olds assume that you couldn't possibly rise to the top of a huge cooperation unless you were really fucking smarty, and particularly fucking good at not fucking up, because life is fair, the rest of us know better. Look at this dumb-as-a-sack-of-hammers decision to bully the LA Times in the most hamfisted way possible. Obviously it is entirely possible to "earn" the seat of power in a huge corporation without deserving it at all.

If life were fair, that couldn't happen. But look at these dumb, dumb, dumb rich guys. Dumb, dumb, dumb dummies who are so successful in our "meritocracy". Time to grow up. Obviously, life is not fair. Life is not fair, babies.

@2: So you don't think a free press without deep control from huge multinational corporations matters to you as John Q. Public?