Bob Iger wants to stay out of the culture wars.
Walt Disney and its CEO have made a sharp pivot since doubling down on diversity and inclusion efforts in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis four and a half years ago. I’m taking it. At the time, Disney executives, including then-Chairman Iger, vowed in a message to employees: “We will continue the conversation as long as necessary to bring about real change.”
Magic Kingdom greeted fans in style for the nightly fireworks display. “Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,” became a gender-neutral greeting for “dreamers of all ages.” Pixar’s animated film “Lightyear” included a brief kiss between two female characters. Disney’s animated film “Strange World” features the company’s first biracial queer teen hero.
But Disney confirmed last week that the story of a transgender athlete had been removed from Pixar’s new animated series “Win or Lose,” about a middle school softball team. Disney said in a statement that it recognizes that “many parents prefer to discuss specific topics with their children on their own terms and schedules.”
And Mr. Iger signed a settlement in a high-profile defamation lawsuit brought by President-elect Donald Trump last spring amid outcries from journalists that ABC News’ owner had bowed to political pressure.
Disney agreed to pay $1 million in Trump’s legal costs and donate an additional $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library.
Last spring, President Trump criticized ABC News and its anchor George Stephanopoulos during an on-air interview with ABC News, after a civil court jury found Trump in a lawsuit brought by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. The suit was filed against him after he claimed to have found him responsible for the rape. Instead, a New York jury found Trump responsible for “sexual abuse.”
Disney CEO Bob Iger.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
Some First Amendment experts believed ABC won the case, in part because of the high bar for public officials to prove defamation.
Margaret Sullivan, a prominent journalist, wrote in a Substack op-ed that the network “might have won if it had persevered.” “If anything, this result will encourage President Trump to attack the press, but he doesn’t need any encouragement.”
Disney declined to comment on the matter or make Iger available for an interview.
People close to the company who were not authorized to comment said Disney’s general counsel recommended a settlement with Trump and the decision to remove the transgender storyline from “Win or Lose” was made months ago. said.
Fierce battle with DeSantis
Disney’s downsizing comes nearly three years after the company found itself mired in political quicksand.
In early 2022, Disney became a target of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after then-Secretary Bob Chapek was embarrassed by the company’s response to a Florida law aimed at banning classroom discussions about sexual identity. . Mr. Chapek’s instinct was to stay out of the dispute, and in a letter to Disney employees he initially defended the company’s silence, saying corporate statements “do little to change results or mindset.” Ta.
Such declarations are “often used as a weapon by either side to further inflame divisions,” Čapek wrote.
But after a loud outcry from employees and activists, and a Twitter post from then-retired Iger, who warned that Florida’s bill would “put vulnerable LGBTQ youth at risk.” Mr. Chapek changed tack.
Mr. DeSantis seized on Disney’s change in attitude, branding the company “woke.”
It was a derogatory label among conservatives.
“If you assign a private organization to a political team, people will immediately begin to see things from that perspective,” said Michael Binder, a political science professor at the University of North Florida who has studied the Disney-DeSantis controversy. Ta.
Mr. Iger, who returned as chief executive to replace Mr. Capek two years ago, recognized the existential threat.
“Our primary mission has to be to entertain,” Iger said at the company’s 2023 investor conference. “It can’t be agenda-driven.”
Mr. Iger has increasingly emphasized the importance of distancing the company from overtly political messages.
“The story you tell needs to actually reflect the audience you’re trying to reach, and that audience is so diverse that you’ll need to know certain things,” Iger said during an April appearance on CNBC. It may turn off depending on the situation.” “We need to be more sensitive to the interests of a broader audience. That’s not easy.”
The nearly two-year battle between Disney and DeSantis has been painful.
“Mr. DeSantis was using Disney as a political foil to make the case for his presidential bid,” said Binder, director of the University of North Florida Public Opinion Institute. “This was something we had never seen before, with governors and elected officials attacking private companies externally, and Republicans in particular going after them.”
University researchers found that DeSantis’ “woke” campaign against Disney, at least conservative I discovered that it is attracting a lot of attention among people.
A poll conducted in early 2023 by the Public Opinion Research Institute of Florida’s registered voters found that only about 27% of Republicans in the state have a “favorable” view of Disney. It turned out that it was. Meanwhile, 76% of Democrats surveyed were fans of the Mouse House.
“There was a big disagreement, which is bad for a company trying to market to everyone,” Binder said.
Republican lawmakers curtailed their relationship with Mr. DeSantis, and Disney lost its own land-use authority in central Florida. Disney filed a First Amendment lawsuit the following year, alleging that DeSantis and the state Republican Party waged a concerted campaign to punish Disney for exercising its speech rights to criticize Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed Disney’s First Amendment lawsuit.
Although Disney settled with Florida, the DeSantis case highlights the dangers of promoting the company’s values to a global audience in polarized times.
“Disney offers a product: entertainment,” said Charles Elson, former director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “It’s not about politics.”
What’s more, once a company takes a political position, it’s tricky and expensive to get out of it, Elson said.
“Being involved in politics means expressing your opinion,” Elson said. “And when you go out, it also becomes a statement.”
Mr. Iger has long supported Disney’s efforts to diversify its cast and storylines.
The 101-year-old company introduced its first black princess in 2009. About 10 years later, he released the film “Coco,” which is rich in Latin culture. The 2018 Marvel movie “Black Panther” was a huge hit, earning $1.3 billion in ticket sales worldwide.
The original “Moana,” inspired by Polynesian mythology, was named the most streamed movie on Disney+. The sequel was released over Thanksgiving weekend and broke box office records, already earning $750 million worldwide.
“Our business creates entertainment, travel, and consumer products, and our success is largely determined by consumer tastes and preferences, which are often shaped in unpredictable ways,” the company said in its latest annual report. It will change,” he said.
“Consumer perceptions of our positions on public interest matters, including our efforts to achieve certain environmental and social goals, often vary widely and pose risks to our reputation and brand.” the report added.
vague defamation case
Since then, Disney has joined a growing list of companies that have chosen to walk away rather than antagonize the president-elect, although Disney believes it was able to defeat Trump’s defamation claims in the ABC News lawsuit. Some First Amendment experts were disappointed.
Last year, a federal judge in Florida dismissed President Trump’s lawsuit against CNN seeking $475 million in punitive damages. Trump claimed the network tarnished his reputation by calling his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election a “big lie.”
But defending Stephanopoulos’ comments may have been more difficult, according to people familiar with Disney’s internal deliberations.
Disney general counsel Horacio Gutierrez and other senior executives became concerned after the judge in the case denied Disney’s motion to dismiss the case last July, a person familiar with the matter said. It is said that In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga said that “a reasonable jury could interpret Stephanopoulos’ statements as defamatory.”
Mr. Altonaga was appointed by former President George W. Bush.
Disney also decided it was unsafe to send the case to a jury in South Florida, where President Trump is particularly popular, the experts said. Opinion polls also found that distrust of the press is increasing.
An “entertainment first” company
Disney lawyers were aware that some legal conservatives would support the case and that it could be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears three of Mr. Trump’s appointments. Additionally, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has announced his desire to overturn the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan decision that was supposed to be at the heart of the ABC News case.
Disney did not want to jeopardize the 60 years of press freedom afforded by that decision. It goes without saying that Disney and ABC’s images have been tarnished by their efforts to withstand President Trump’s tyranny during his second term in office. CNN, in particular, suffered reputational damage from its duel with President Trump, who branded the cable news channel “fake news.”
“You don’t want to fight with the government leaders who are regulating you,” Elson said. “Politics is bad for business.”
Disney is trying to cross the line, but they’re not crossing it. Iger said at a shareholder meeting earlier this year that he believes Disney has a “responsibility to do good in the world.”
“Disney, as a company, promotes acceptance and understanding of all types of people and allows us to have a positive impact on the world,” Iger told CNBC last spring. “But we need to be an entertainment-first company.”
