Since the Internet is a place where people can post whatever views they like about any debate, this particular story has multiplied to dozens of websites all across the world. Three websites, www.savemichaeleisner.com, www.savedisney.com, and www.talkdisney.com have been established as focal points of information on the debate. The authors of these sites seemed to have created them for similar reasons, but the sites themselves are very different in terms of the authority with which they present their sides of the debate.

For every website, the website’s author has some kind of motivation for putting up the website. In the case of www.savemichaeleisner.com, the motivation seems to be one of persuasion. The author believes that Michael Eisner is doing a great job at Disney, and shouldn’t be replaced as CEO. To back up his claims, he writes articles about the things that Disney is doing, both for Eisner and against Roy E. Disney. Through these articles, he tries to persuade others to sympathize with Eisner, just as he does. As he states at the bottom of his main page, he started the website “Because people need to be enlightened” (save Michael Eisner.com). As is often the case, his version of enlightenment is the rest of the world seeing things his way, and thus he tries to persuade people to his point of view.

The website that offers the opposing view to www.savemichaeleisner.com, www.savedisney.com, has a motivation of persuasion as well, but there is an additional motivating factor. This site seems to be sponsored by Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold, the two leading proponents in the movement to oust Eisner. The website has numerous articles written by many different people, including Disney and Gold, which show how Disney has been in a downward slide in the last few years under Eisner’s leadership. The articles seem to be just as persuasive in nature as those on www.savemichaeleisner.com. However, Disney and Gold have a vested interest in removing Eisner as CEO, since it means they might be able to return to the Board of Directors, and even receive promotions themselves. Since the CEO position comes with a seven-figure income, money could definitely be the big motivation for running this site.

Finally, the relatively neutral website www.talkdisney.com has a completely different raison d’etre. This site is a discussion board, and a very large number of the people who post on this board are posting regarding the Eisner vs. Disney controversy. The board itself exists merely as an open forum for people to talk about Disney topics, and never intended to support one side in the argument over the other. The authors of www.talkdisney.com never posted their official reason for running this particular board, but most boards are created because the authors themselves want to talk about a topic with as many people as possible. As for those who discuss this controversy, most of the posts seem to be persuasive in nature as well.

Thus, all of the sites about this topic are at least partially motivated by a need to persuade an audience – this seems rather obvious considering the fact that this topic is a debate and the very nature of the beast would cause anyone talking about a factor of the debate to take up a side and try to convince others as well. It’s interesting, though, that while this only appears to be part of the motive for www.savedisney.com, it is the driving force behind www.savemichaeleisner.com.

This fact may be especially important to grant authority to www.savemichaeleisner.com. Normally, this would be considered a site with no authority whatsoever for many reasons. The author never reveals himself; if his writings had any credence, it’s lost on the fact that he doesn’t provide his name. It further loses influence with the fact that he never quotes any sources – all of his evidence comes completely from his own mind. He does post a link to an article on Forbes.com but never used quotes from this source. The site loses authority with the authors statement that the purpose of the site it to make an “objective argument against their case” (www.savemichaeleisner.com) even though an objective argument would offer views from both sides and this site only presents those that support Eisner. The only authority this site has then is that he admits this is a persuasive site, when other sites have ulterior motives.

The website www.savedisney.com has, in contrast, quite a bit of authority. Many of the articles come straight from the source of the controversy, since Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold are active participants of the site and they are the ones causing a stir at Disney in the first place. Additionally, almost all of the articles on this site are quoted in whole or in part from various news media and include links to the original copy. Further, the site even has the e-mail addresses of some of the members of the board of directors at Disney and encourages people to write in to the Board to get the environment at Disney changed. Finally, on almost every single page, there is a quote from Roy E. Disney that is directly relevant to the page. Take, for example, the following quote from Mr. Disney at the top of the “contact us” page:

"Stanley and I greatly appreciate the thousands of emails we have received in response to our resignations from the Walt Disney Board and our loss of confidence in the Board and Michael Eisner. Over the next few weeks we ask for your patience as we process this tremendous volume of support and continue to develop and update this website."(Disney)

This text not only provides Roy E. Disney’s feelings about the situation, but also includes a direct acknowledgement that this is his website. It is still a persuasive, personal site, but these touches make it credible as well.

The authority of www.talkdisney.com is of a completely different caliber from the aforementioned sites. This site is, for the most part, a discussion board. As a discussion board, the comments made on the site are from random people all over the world who may or may not have the credentials to talk academically about a topic, and have no way of proving those credentials even if they have them. The site, then, has no credibility for any discussions taking place on its server. However, since these are real people having a debate about the topic, it does serve as a credible source to get insights into the feelings and attitudes of Disney’s constituents. Additionally, the site does have some news on its main page, and all of the news has the copyright information that shows where the news came from originally. One recent article about the anti-Eisner sentimentality originated from Reuters and is titled “Roy Disney Offers Info to Step Up Holders’ Revolt.” The article presents data from both Roy E. Disney and his opponents in an attempt to be fair and biased, and the authors of the website quote it word for word and never editorialize (Henderson). This provides a great deal of authority for their news, if not for their discussion boards.