Not as a slight against Jimmy but…of course he is. A roasted dog turd would beat that fuck in a poll.

I don’t disagree with you, but this is isn’t exactly “idol” level expectations, either. “Not selling out to horrific regimes” is basic decency I’d expect of everyone, not just those I look up to. Most of the names I see here make sense, but there are a few I expected to be better than this.

What an asshole.

Here we go with the purity test BS.

Do you think that you never bought an product from companies in problematic countries who are doing human right abuses?

If you don’t want to be called out for it, maybe don’t do it in the very same comment, yeah?

Also,

I welcome anybody who want to boycott any problematic country

So what? The US also did a lot of terrible things to other countries and we never boycott it

So which is it? People can boycott what they want? Or are they “hypocrites” for boycotting in ways you disagree with? For someone so concerned with “consistency”, you are all over the place.

And I’ll ask again, how is your condemnation of the boycotts beneficial to anyone being harmed?

Your “consistency” is bullshit purity testing.

Talking about double standard is not whataboutism

Please, enlighten me on how your claims benefit anybody other than those profiting from suffering? What tangible action are you promoting here?

Quibbling over why it wasn’t “good enough” doesn’t support your criticisms of other boycotts anymore than “but what about other countries?!” does. If that’s your metric, no boycott or action against countries/companies will ever measure up. So really what you’re arguing for here is complete inaction, which won’t make anything better at all.

Maybe that’s part of the problem, eh? Also, maybe skim a newspaper once in a while.

This is entirely wrong.

The same company who’s CEO simped the wannabe dictator at the ego-stroking dinner?

So for everyone wondering about the emotionally charged comments here like me, here’s the brief explanation from what I found -

• LeVar Burton and his company RRKidz licensed the brand of Reading Rainbow from it’s parent company WNED in 2011. Although the deal isn’t public, WNED asserts that the deal was for digital publishing only.
• In 2012, Burton helped create a Reading Rainbow ipad app branded under that license that provided access to a curated collection of books and new videos with Burton and other guests which was widely successful.
• From 2014-2016, Burton and RRKidz first ran a Kickstarter campaign to revive the show (raising nearly $6.5 million), then went on to release Skybrary by Reading Rainbow, a subscription service for books and videos, and then Reading Rainbow Skybrary for Schools, a digital library service for elementary schools. They were also reportedly in discussion with Netflix about what they claim was an unrelated project.
• In 2016 WNED terminated their licensing deal, claiming Burton and his company violated the terms with their attempts to make new episodes and “assert control over the brand”, subsequently hurting WNED’s own efforts at a revival of their own. RRKidz filed suit to defend their actions, then WNED countersued and further added litigation against Burton’s use of Reading Rainbow terminology in his personal podcasts and projects.
• A settlement was reached in 2017, ultimately leading to RRKidz losing the license to Reading Rainbow, but allowing Burton to keep using catchphrases from the show. RRKidz ended up rebranding as LeVar Burton Kids and the app is now just Skybrary.

In short, Burton licensed the brand from WNED and ended up pushing further with creative development than WNED was comfortable with, leading to a splitting off of his projects and the new, official Reading Rainbow content. Personally, I see two entities trying to do good that got wrapped up in messy legalities and its unfortunate consequences. Thankfully, Burton and his projects are still ongoing, and WNED, a public media company, still holds the reigns for this new series. It’s not perfect, but I feel like it could have ended a lot worse.

The sources I pulled from:

1. Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Rainbow#Reboot
2. Hollywood Reporter - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/reading-rainbow-owner-accuses-levar-burton-theft-extortion-lawsuit-1027372/
3. Current - https://current.org/2016/03/wned-and-rrkidz-trade-lawsuits-over-reading-rainbow-licensing/

Sure thing! It’s not a particularly well-known thing, tbh, so it slips into comments now and again.

Just a heads up, your \ got absorbed by the text markdown Lemmy uses. You have to use a double slash to have it show up, like this \\.

Now they can. They couldn’t before the financial year rolled over as of today.

They already did that in July.