As many as 10 Disney cruise ship staff were arrested between April 23 and 27 for their alleged involvement in a child pornography ring — and ABC News, the network literally owned by The Walt Disney Company, hasn't said a single word about it on the air.
Shocking? Only if you've been living under a rock since Disney bought ABC. The mouse protects its own.
NewsBusters Media Editor Bill D'Agostino laid out the damning timeline in a report published May 11. Regional outlets started covering the arrests on May 5. National coverage picked up on May 6. And ABC? Total blackout. Not a peep on Good Morning America. Not a whisper on World News Tonight. Nothing.
But here's where it gets truly nauseating. Between May 9 and May 11, ABC aired four separate segments about former Disney CEO Bob Iger — three on Good Morning America and one on World News Tonight. They had time to cover Iger receiving an honorary degree from Howard University. They had 175 seconds on May 9 to run a fluff piece about a Cambodian cultural coffee shop.
But 10 alleged pedophiles working on ships full of children? Nah, let's skip that one.
Customs and Border Patrol made the arrests. This wasn't some rumor floating around Reddit. Federal law enforcement officers took these people into custody on allegations of participating in a child pornography ring while employed on Disney cruise ships — ships that families pay thousands of dollars to put their kids on.
And the network that shares a corporate parent with the cruise line just decided you didn't need to know about it.
Let's be clear about what's happening here. This isn't a journalistic oversight. This isn't an editorial judgment call about newsworthiness. Ten arrests tied to child exploitation on a major American cruise line is news by any definition. ABC made a conscious decision to bury it because reporting the story would embarrass their owner.
They even managed to squeeze in an American Idol segment on May 8 — another Disney property, naturally. The network has become a 24-hour infomercial for its parent company, except when the parent company has a pedophile problem. Then it's suddenly the most disciplined newsroom in America.
Remember, this is the same media establishment that lectures us about "threats to democracy" and the sacred role of a free press. These are the people who claim they speak truth to power. They can't even speak truth to their own HR department.
Every parent who has ever booked a Disney cruise deserves to know about these arrests. Every family considering one deserves to make an informed decision. ABC News decided that protecting Disney's brand was more important than informing the public about alleged child predators on family vacation ships.
That's not journalism. That's public relations with a news desk.