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The Walt Disney Company is learning a harsh lesson: alienating its core audience with progressive politics is bad for business.
After years of positioning itself as a champion of diversity and inclusion, particularly in its content offerings, Disney is reportedly scaling back its overt political messaging, admitting that its foray into the “woke” agenda has alienated millions of its customers.
The company has reportedly excised a transgender storyline from its upcoming Pixar series “Win or Lose,” citing a desire to let parents address such topics on their own terms.
Similarly, an episode of “Moon Girl and the Devil Dinosaur,” featuring a trans athlete, was shelved, with insiders attributing the decision to the current political climate following recent elections.
Disney’s entanglement in Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education Act” legislation led to a high-profile clash with Governor Ron DeSantis, resulting in the loss of the company’s special tax district status.
The financial repercussions of such political engagements have been significant, with Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, experiencing subscriber losses and several major film releases underperforming at the box office.
Fox News reported:
Beyond entertainment, Disney has been cited as a factor behind ABC News’ recent settlement with President-elect Donald Trump earlier this month. Trump sued the news company, owned by Disney, for defamation after host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly claimed on-air that he was found “liable for rape” when he was in fact held liable for “sexual abuse,” which has a different definition under New York law.
Rather than continue with a costly trial, ABC News and Trump came to an agreement with ABC News paying $15 million to a Trump presidential foundation and museum as well as $1 million in legal fees. This move faced backlash from more liberal commentators who believed the company was caving to Trump.
“When you get into politics, you are making a statement,” Charles Elson said. “And when you get out, that also becomes a statement.”
“You don’t want to get in a fight with the head of a government that regulates you,” he added. “Politics is bad for business.”
The sentiment was shared by CEO Bob Iger in an interview with CNBC earlier this year.
“I think the noise is sort of quieted down. I’ve been preaching this for a long time at the company before I left and since I came back then our number one goal is to entertain,” Iger said. “The bottom line is that infusing messaging as a sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what we’re up to. They need to be entertaining, and where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world, whether it’s, you know, fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great.”
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