The Walt Disney Company is facing more significant challenges to its position of unbiased news reporting. ABC News has been under significant pressure since it hosted the presidential debate earlier this month to reveal whether or not it facilitated an unfair advantage for one candidate over the other.
Part of this scrutiny comes from the fact that the Disney-owned network repeatedly interrupted or “fact checked” one candidate more than a dozen times, while never doing so to the other. After an alleged whistleblower affidavit was teased online, Disney and its moderators of the debate began to corroborate many of the accusations.
David Muir and Linsey Davis via ABC News YouTube
Stephen Battaglio at The Los Angeles Times reported, “[Linsey] Davis, wearing pink glasses while speaking to The Times over breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, said the decision to attempt to correct the candidates was in response to the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Biden, whose poor performance led to his exit from the race.”
Once the whistleblower’s affidavit landed, Disney has failed thus far to directly acknowledge and/or refute the specific claims.
BREAKING.🚨
ABC News whistleblower swears under penalty of perjury that the Kamala Harris campaign dictated the terms of the questions during the presidential debate.
Furthermore, the Harris campaign insisted upon live “fact checking” of Donald Trump during the debate.
ABC… pic.twitter.com/vRvaOdgUln
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) September 15, 2024
READ: Disney’s Likely Next CEO, Dana Walden, Draws Controversy Over Comments and Whistleblower
The way in which the whistleblower allegations have landed are certainly not traditional. Originally disseminated by a politically-activist online account called @DocNetYouTube , the claims go on to assert that there are secret audio recordings which will corroborate the affidavit in the near future. Allegedly, the affidavit has been sent — unredacted — to Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.
When asked about the allegations, the head of Disney television and streaming, Dana Walden (and very close friend of Kamala Harris — she introduced the Vice President to her husband), waffled. Rather than outright deny them, she claimed the question was not “dignifying” of a response. She would then go on to give platitudes regarding ABC without directly answering the question.
Disney’s Dana Walden responds to claims that the presidential debate was biased due to her friendship with Kamala Harris:
“I don’t want to dignify it with much of a response. … [ABC News] is the most professional organization [with] the most top-notch journalists.” pic.twitter.com/MQAOf4Viqg
— Variety (@Variety) September 15, 2024
Later, Disney would finally provide an official response to the allegations.
The company shared, “ABC News followed the debate that both campaigns agreed on and which clearly state: No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.”
Mickey walks down Main Street USA at Disneyland. (Credit: Mortimer Productions)
There are major problems with this statement, however. Clearly, the candidate who was interrupted and “fact checked” more than a dozen times (Trump), was unaware Disney would treat one candidate in a totally different manner than the other regarding moderator insertions. Had that been known, it likely would have cancelled the debate.
Furthermore, a prior CNN debate – which largely shared the same rules with the ABC debate – was well-known for having been agreed to feature no “fact checking” from moderators. It’s certain that a campaign would never agree to be the only side “fact checked” by moderators.
Dana Walden via Variety YouTube
Additionally, the allegations in the affidavit are (among others) that Disney shared “sample questions” with the Harris campaign that were tremendously similar to the real questions (providing a loop hole), as well as that the Harris campaign was assured they would not be “fact checked”… only Trump.
Neither of the chief allegations seem to be refuted by this Disney response. That makes it look to anyone who is closely following that this could be a strawman retort. Disney might be better served if they can honestly deny the specific allegations.
Bob Iger via New York Times Events YouTube
READ: Disney CEO Bob Iger Says It Is Not The Company’s Job “To Advance Any Kind Of Agenda”
Now, things are heating up.
The UK Daily Mail is reporting that Congress has demanded that Disney turns over communications between itself and the Harris campaign. The outlet’s Katelyn Caralle reported, “Congress is demanding that ABC News and Vice President Kamala Harris hand over any communications with the network and campaign team related to the debate earlier this month.”
“It comes after a sworn affidavit emerged from a whistleblower claiming to be staffer with knowledge that ABC gave Harris an advantage in the debate with Donald Trump by providing her the questions ahead of time,” she added.
HULU ON DISNEY+ CELEBRATION – Some of the biggest stars across The Walt Disney Company celebrate the official launch of Hulu on Disney+ at an exclusive cocktail reception hosted by Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, along with special guest Bob Iger, on Friday evening in Los Angeles. (Disney/Greg Williams)
DANA WALDEN (CO-CHAIRMAN, DISNEY ENTERTAINMENT, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY), ROBERT A. IGER (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY), ALAN BERGMAN (CO-CHAIRMAN, DISNEY ENTERTAINMENT, THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY)
The Hill says that US Senator Roger Marshall is requesting Disney provide those communications to his office.
Marshall wrote in a letter to to ABC News President ​​Almin Karamehmedovic and Harris’ campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodriguez, “On debate night, it became abundantly clear that ABC News and its respective moderators had a biased agenda.”
“The American people deserve transparency and accountability from the mainstream media and a full accounting of whether ABC News coordinated with the Harris campaign to skew the debate’s questions and fact-checking in favor of the Vice President,” Marshall added.
Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS). Photo Credit: U.S. Senate Photographic Studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
J.D. Vance, running mate of President Donald Trump, declared that this will be a national scandal if it turns out to be true. All of that makes for more pressure than Disney was likely expecting in the aftermath of the debate.
Daily Mail reported Vance said while in Michigan, “If it happened, it’s disgraceful.” He added, “It should be a national scandal.”
J. D. Vance speaking with attendees at the 2021 Southwest Regional Conference hosted by Turning Point USA at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
One of the most vulnerable places that Disney might face in all of this is that Dana Walden, the likely next CEO of the company and head of Disney TV and streaming, is very close with Kamala Harris. If Congress does indeed get involved in all of this with subpoenas or additional congressional oversight, could Walden be forced to hand over private communications that might be seen as a way of avoiding the corporate Disney emails and phone calls?
Although we’re not alleging any wrongdoing by anyone at Disney, it certainly could be a very messy situation for a company that is clearly politically aligned against those who would likely investigate them. Also, with a senator now getting involved, it begs the question of whether or not credibility has been assigned to this whistleblower report from the most powerful lawmakers in America.
That Park Place is not a political website and makes no partisan position. This article reports hard news and implications of alleged whistleblower statements as they will impact Disney, the largest entertainment corporation in the world.
