I am an award-winning children’s television creator. I’ve won four Telly Awards, three Dove Foundation Awards, the Buzz Award and more, all for a show that shared traditional conservative values.
The series ended up in the Christian marketplace in the U.S. because the values it taught didn’t match the values of mainstream children’s television.
The business of children’s entertainment has little to do with what’s good for kids. It has everything to do with money, followed by the left’s narrative.
What’s interesting is that, over the last few years, that narrative quietly crawled into the dominant position. Money took a backseat because companies like Disney were still making plenty of it.
That is no longer happening. CEO Bob Iger understands this. It is the reason Disney brought him back, frankly — to correct course given the financial turmoil Disney finds itself in today.
It was prior CEO Bob Chapek who called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to express his disapproval of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which actually protects young children from being exposed to the LGBT agenda and other inappropriate sexual material at school.
That phenomenal mistake drew DeSantis’ ire and placed Disney at the epicenter of the culture war, and it ultimately came at the cost of the company’s self-governing status in Florida. The return of Iger was the only solution.
With Disney having suffered a 56 percent market cap plunge resulting in losses of nearly $200 billion, Iger must answer to investors. Disney’s “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” obviously isn’t paying dividends or bolstering the bottom line.
The new strategy, Iger told investors at a Tuesday meeting, is to “quiet the noise” and pull out of the culture war.
“Our primary mission needs to be to entertain … and to have a positive impact on the world,” Iger said during the meeting, according to Reuters. “I’m very serious about that. It should not be agenda-driven.”
The line Iger is walking is extremely thin.
Flush with woke executives, writers and stars, the entertainment industry in which Disney is a leading player is attached at the hip to the LGBT movement. But Iger knows Disney can’t survive on its current trajectory.
He has no choice but to change course, at least temporarily, and rely on the public’s short memory to get the Mouse House back on solid financial ground.
Then Disney might begin rejoining the woke crowd, but much more stealthily than before. Leftists play the long game, and I am certain Iger can convince his woke employees that it is in their best interests to allow him to do what he was rehired to do.
Therein lies the challenge for conservative parents and viewers. We cannot invite Mickey back into our homes only for him to arrive in a dress and lipstick.
We must hold Disney’s feet to the fire. The language Iger understands is spoken in dollar signs, and we need to use that language to make sure Disney eliminates woke messaging for good.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
