The Walt Disney Co. is poised to back away from politically slanted left-wing content, with the entertainment giant’s returning CEO seemingly admitting as such in an internal company town hall.
On Tuesday, writer and filmmaker Christopher Rufo shared a video of Disney CEO Bob Iger expressing his intent to pull back from political programming.
“Do I like the company being embroiled in controversy? Of course not. It can be distracting and it can have a negative impact on the company. And to the extent that I can work to quiet things down, I’m going to do that,” Iger said, in an all-but-obvious reference to Disney’s involvement on the left wing of the American culture war.
EXCLUSIVE: I have obtained video from returning Disney CEO Bob Iger’s first town hall with employees, in which he signals that he will work to “quiet things down” politically and move toward neutrality in the culture war.https://t.co/ZBGdHhxFVS pic.twitter.com/ZbMCZN4MlG
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) November 29, 2022
Disney’s woke programming has not only hurt the company’s reputation with customers but also fractured its relationship with a state that’s very important to its bottom line.
Iger said during the town hall that he regretted that Disney had made itself an enemy of Florida.
“I was sorry to see us dragged into that battle,” he said in another clip shared by Rufo.
“And I have no idea exactly what its ramifications are in terms of the business itself,” the executive said of the company’s squabble with Florida over the Parental Rights in Education Act, which bans the sexual indoctrination of young schoolchildren.
Iger seemingly expressed his hopes of restoring Disney in the Sunshine State’s good graces.
“What I can say is, the state of Florida has been important to us for a long time, and we have been very important to the state of Florida,” he said. “That is something I’m extremely mindful of and will articulate if I get the chance.”
Iger expressed regret that Disney engaged in the high-profile fight against Gov. DeSantis, which resulted in the state legislature stripping the company of its special administrative status. “I was sorry to see us dragged into that battle.” pic.twitter.com/889toYW5ye
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) November 29, 2022
The CEO — who returned as the head of Disney after Bob Chapek was canned — did push back on the notion that everything for which it has been published is “political.”
“I think that some of the subjects that have proven to be controversial as it relates to Disney have been branded political, and I don’t necessarily believe they are,” Iger argued.
Disney’s attack on the state over the parental rights bill proved fateful for the multibillion-dollar entertainment company.
The company has shown a willingness to market content charged with pro-LGBT themes to minors, even to the extent that some American conservatives have decided to boycott the company.
Amid the fight over the Florida legislation, Disney executives were seen pushing such programming in videos shared by Rufo.
One clip showed an executive producer bragging about inserting her “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” into kids’ programming.
SCOOP: I’ve obtained video from inside Disney’s all-hands meeting about the Florida parental rights bill, in which executive producer Latoya Raveneau says her team has implemented a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and is regularly “adding queerness” to children’s programming. pic.twitter.com/eJnZMpKIXT
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
Another featured a top exec promising that “as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child,” she would ensure there were “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories.”
SCOOP: Disney corporate president Karey Burke says, “as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child,” she supports having “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories” and wants a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities. pic.twitter.com/oFRUiuu9JG
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022
Along those lines, the company has released not one but two kids’ movies with LGBT themes that were wholly extraneous to the plot: “Lightyear” and “Strange World,” both of which bombed at the box office.
Florida Gov. Ron. DeSantis reacted to Disney’s about-face in a Thursday interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, saying the company had brought wrath upon itself.
“We didn’t drag them in, Tucker,” he said. “They went in on their own, and not only opposed the bill, they threatened to get it repealed.”
[firefly_embed]
[/firefly_embed]
DeSantis and the Florida legislature stripped Disney of generous tax privileges the company had received from the state in response to its political activism.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
