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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

No Damage Done By Boycott

The Hollywood Reporter

The Walt Disney Co. has not experienced any financial damage related to the boycott by an organization of Southern Baptists, said company chairman Michael Eisner.

“It hasn’t had a financial impact,” Eisner told CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” in an interview that airs tonight.

While Eisner dismissed the impact of the boycott, he acknowledged that it prompted him to go on “60 Minutes” to discuss the Baptists’ constant complaints during the past few years.

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Liberty Commission, told “60 Minutes” that Disney is “pushing a Christian-bashing, family-bashing, pro-homosexual agenda.”

“That’s ridiculous; we’re not pushing any agenda,” Eisner responds in the interview.

In the interview, Eisner defended the coming out of ABC sitcom star Ellen DeGeneres, whose show, “Ellen,” now focuses on the gay lifestyle of her character. Eisner said he was not offended by the recent same-sex kiss on “Ellen.” But he said the parental advisory on the program, which had DeGeneres in a snit, was not related to the Baptist boycott.

Eisner also defended the right of homosexual groups to organize “Gay Day” trips to Walt Disney World, another hot-button issue for Baptists.

“The homosexual organizations arranged that day for themselves,” he said. “And I think it would be a travesty in this country for us to exclude anybody.”