How Should Disney's Streaming Service Handle Its Own Racist Programming?

Some of Disney's older movies — like "Dumbo," "Peter Pan" and "Fantasia" — contain a disclaimer on Disney Plus, the company's new streaming service: “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

TV expert Bob Thompson joined Boston Public Radio Monday to discuss whether this goes far enough in addressing some of the company's films, which critics say are racist, sexist and outdated.

"Some kind of announcement I think is necessary. When you're going to suddenly present to people an entire library — and Disney's stuff goes back, what, 90 years — I think you have to contextualize some of that stuff as people are just wandering through it. ... But those two sentences hardly do that," said Thompson. "I guess they are warning they are cognizant, but they don't talk about whether it's problematic. They don't talk about the fact it wasn't right then any more than it is now. And most of all, they never fess up that [they're] the company who did it in the first place."

Thompson compared the Disney Plus disclaimer to one issued by iTunes when episodes of Tom and Jerry became available: "These animated shorts are products of their time. Some of them may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society," Thompson quoted from a note in the description section of Tom and Jerry, Vol. 1's iTunes page. "These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these animated shorts are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed."

"That's a pretty good powerful statement," said Thompson. "That goes a lot further in explaining why you put one of those things up there in the first place."

Thompson is founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public communications at Syracuse.