Thor off critics’ blacklist
The Walt Disney Co has lifted its ban of Los Angeles Times reporters and critics from its press screenings after a widespread backlash prompted several media outlets to announce their own boycotts of Disney movies.
Disney said it was restoring access to the newspaper after ‘‘productive discussions with the newly installed leadership’’ at the Times. Disney had barred the Tinseltown paper from its screenings after it published a twopart investigative series on the company’s business dealings in Anaheim, California.
Disney’s punitive measures against the Times led to many outlets refusing advance coverage of the studio’s films, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The AV Club.
Four prominent film critics groups announced on Tuesday morning that they would bar Walt Disney Co films from receiving awards consideration until the company reverses its decision to bar the Los Angeles Times from advance screenings of its films and access to its talent.
The move by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Boston Society of Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics came after editors of the Times said on Friday that Disney denied the newspaper access to its upcoming slate of films over what it called ‘‘unfair coverage’’ of the Disneyland Resort’s relationship with the city of Anaheim city.
Upcoming Disney films included Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, Coco and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The Times says it will review and cover Disney films when they become available to the public.
In a joint statement released early on Tuesday, the critics groups noted that it was ‘‘admittedly extraordinary’’ to ‘‘take any action that might penalize film artists for decisions beyond their control’’.
‘‘But Disney brought forth this action when it chose to punish the Times’ journalists rather than express its disagreement with a business story via ongoing public discussion,’’ the statement continued. ‘‘Disney’s response should gravely concern all who believe in the importance of a free press, artists included.’’
A Disney spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The statement comes after some critics and organisations said they wouldn’t provide advance reviews of Disney films in protest of the company’s response to the Times.
Also on Tuesday, the executive board of the Television Critics Association, a group of more than 200 print and online journalists who cover TV, rebuked Disney’s move.
The association ‘‘understands that screeners and coverage opportunities are a privilege and not a right but we condemn any circumstance in which a company takes punitive action against journalists for doing their jobs’’, the board said in a statement.
The New York Times said in a statement on Tuesday that it won’t attend preview screenings of Disney films while the LA Times can’t, saying Disney’s move is a ‘‘dangerous precedent and not at all in the public interest’’. Critics will review Disney movies when they are released to the public.
Disney said on Friday that a two-part Times series in September that detailed what it characterised as a complicated and increasingly tense relationship between Anaheim and the company showed ‘‘a complete disregard for basic journalistic standards’’. It added that the Times published a ‘‘biased and inaccurate series, wholly driven by a political agenda’’.
Daniel Miller, the Times reporter who wrote the series, tweeted that ‘‘Disney never asked for a correction’’.
The newspaper declined further comment.