aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Disney pledges to cut out smoking
The Disney Studio has pledged to remove smoking from its family-oriented films.
The media giant’s chief executive Robert A Iger said depictions of smoking in future Disney-branded films would be “non-existent”.
And smoking will be “discouraged” in films aimed at adults released under its Touchstone and Miramax banners.
Mr Iger made the promise in a letter to US congressman Edward Markey. DVDs that show cigarettes will also carry anti-smoking announcements, he added.
Meanwhile, over at Fox News a guest opposing a bipartisan Senate proposal to fund an extension the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by way of a cigarette tax lit up a cigarette on-air to prove his point. (President Bush, of course, opposes SCHIP.)
Disney is likely to garner kudos for its move. The American people generally favor the regulation of cigarettes:
For seven years, proponents have been trying to get the Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarettes, and President Bush has firmly opposed.
Just last week, he declared that “nicotine is not a drug to be regulated under FDA.”
But most Americans think it is. In a new Washington Post poll, two-thirds of the public said they support the proposal set to be considered in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions this morning.
SEE ALSO: Cigarettes: the real gateway drug and the Europeans get serious about smoking.
