Media Business Slaps Down Culture Warriors

Michael Hedges May 22, 2023 Follow on Twitter

Even before early printing presses enabled access to ideas book bans and similar censoring of literary works was widespread. Somebody always finds offense in ideas. Indeed, the printing press was once considered threatening, even subversive. Fortunately, formalized education has taught skills of discerning value. That, too, is under threat.

Publisher Penguin Random House has joined writers advocate PEN America in a lawsuit against a Florida public school district in the United States challenging the banning of ten books. Books removed from the school library include “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and ”The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison. This recent spate of book bans was enabled by legislation enacted this year requiring prompt removal of books or educational materials on the complaint of a parent or county resident offended by depicted sexual conduct or identity. A separate Florida law prohibits materials that “could make students feel guilty or responsible for the past actions of other members of their race,” noted the New York Times (NYT) (April 22).

The laws are “the most unsubtle attempts at viewpoint discrimination,” said Penguin Random House associate general counsel Dan Novak to the NYT (May 18). “For many instances there’s not even the attempt at a pretext. When these titles do get flagged, what we're seeing is that there is a committee that it’s supposed to go to that's filled with actual members of the community… and they're saying these (books) are educationally appropriate. And then the school district is just overruling their own people. So it's one of the most eye-popping fact patterns we've seen, and we think that when the court sees it, and certainly the public sees it, they'll understand the strength of the case.”

Penguin Random House is the worlds largest publisher of general interest titles. It is a subsidiary of Bertelsmann SE, major publisher/broadcaster based in Germany. Bertelsmann chief executive Thomas Rabe is acting chief executive of Penguin Random House. Macmillan Publishers is supporting the legal action. “As future leaders of our democracy, children need and deserve access to the full breadth of who we are as Americans,” said chief executive Jonathan Yaged in a statement, quoted by the LA Times (May 18). “The censorship of books is a direct attack on the founding principles of our country and our constitutional rights as citizens.”

PEN America was established in 1922 and is part of the worldwide PEN International network. "Young people do not want sanitized narratives," said author Ashley Hope Pérez, quoted by NPR (May 18). "They want opportunities to talk about difficult issues and to imagine lives that are different than their own.” Ms Pérez wrote ‘Out Of Darkness,’ a novel about an interracial relationship in the 1930s. It has been banned in Florida and the US state of Texas.

Channeling former US president Donald Trump, right-wing Florida governor Ron DeSantis reacted angrily, reported NPR (May 18). “This idea of a book ban in Florida, that somehow they don’t want books in the library; that’s a hoax. And that’s really a nasty hoax, because it’s a hoax in service of trying to pollute and sexualize our children.” As he seeks higher political office, governor DeSantis is playing the “culture war” card.

While publishers and writers are important media world opinion makers, beyond compare is governor DeSantis’ “feud” with one of the biggest media/entertainment brands: The Walt Disney Company. It is also the largest single-site employer in the US. The Disney World resort and entertainment complex is also the Florida’s biggest employer. Equally, Disney World attracts millions of visitors, estimated at about 36 million in 2021, the last available figures, reported NBC (April 23). These folks have boosted the traffic through Orlando International airport to seventh in the US. But governor DeSantis feels the need to “punish” Disney for vocal disagreement over pet legislation, popular with the right-wing, disparaging minorities.

Disney chief executive Bob Iger, like all Disney employees, is into happiness, seriously. “Enough was enough,” noted the NYT (April 23), and Disney lawyers filed “a blistering” lawsuit in Federal Court over a “targeted campaign of government retaliation,” citing First Amendment protections. “Disney regrets that it has come to this,” said the filing. “In America, the government cannot punish you for speaking your mind.”

“The family-friendly, fun-for-everyone, intentionally inoffensive brand has been demonized by politicians like DeSantis and others who have played to the Fox News cameras to raise their own profiles,” said equally blistering CNN media editor Oliver Darcy (April 27). “The truth is that characterizing Disney as a creepy company that aims to morally bankrupt kids has become a mainstream position in GOP media circles. Now that he will be forced to defend it in court, where the laws of reality apply, the war of his own choosing could very well cost him.”

Last week, Disney lawyers filed a motion to dismiss in a Florida state court asking removal of a panel appointed by the governor to overrule the real estate development board established by Disney 50 years ago to manage the grounds. “Just over a year ago, Disney expressed a political view that Governor DeSantis did not like,” said the filing, reported by AP (May 16). “In response, the Governor unleashed a campaign of retaliation, weaponizing the power of government to punish Disney for its protected speech.” For a little icing on the cake, Mr. Iger cancelled a US$1 billion development project near Orlando that would have employed 2,000 people “with US$120,000 as the average salary,” reported the NYT (May 18).

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