The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger recently shared how the company will weigh in on political issues under his guidance in the wake of the company embroiling themselves in public scandal in the state of Florida by opposing a bill that stops the grooming of children in sexual orientation and gender identity ideology between the grades of kindergarten and third grade.
Bradley Cooper and Bob Iger attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood CA on Thursday, April 27, 2023.
(Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)
Iger discussed the company’s positions and how it will act during The New York Times’ DealBook Summit.
Iger initially talked about a bevy of other topics from the environment, immigration to terrorism, “When it comes to taking positions about issues, I have tried really hard over the years and I’m not calling them politics because a lot of them are not politics. It’s sometimes what is right and what is wrong. When it comes time to taking positions I have tried really hard to apply a standard that asks, ‘Is this relevant to the company? To our people? To our company, to our shareholders?’ That’s a very important test.”
“So if we take a position on the environment, we care about the health of our planet, it’s because we believe that if the planet is not healthy it will be bad for our business,” he explained. “People are not going to go to theme parks if they can’t breathe the air, for instance. That’s not politics. That’s business. So if anyone is accused us of being political when it comes to that, they’re just dead wrong.”
Iger then admitted the company heavily relies on immigrants for their workforce, “Interesting to listen to the Vice President about immigration. We have over 200,000 employees. We rely on a workforce that is talented, motivated, interested in working for our company. The more diverse it is the better off we are. The more experienced, and so a robust immigration policy is actually something that is pro-business for us as a for instance.”
Bob Iger via New York Times Events YouTube
“There are times there are subjects that maybe we should not comment on because they’re not relevant unless they are of such importance to the world,” he continued. “For instance, commenting on terrorist attacks is perfectly reasonable for the CEO of a large company.”
“It’s interesting when you think about the world and who people listen to and what they expect of leaders, I just think there’s a time and a place for companies to weigh in on issues, and it’s actually something that I think CEOs get paid to do. We have to make decisions like that,” he asserted.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 28: (L-R) The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger, Showrunner/Executive Producer Jon Favreau, Pedro Pascal and Alan Bergman, Chairman of Disney Studios Content attends the Mandalorian special launch event at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
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He then specifically addressed the company’s position in Florida, “The position that we took with Governor DeSantis in Florida was simply this: The company while I was gone decided to take a position against the (falsely labeled) ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill that was moving through the Florida legislature. I won’t comment on what I would have done or not done, but the company took that position against it.”
Previously, Iger made it clear he believed a law stopping such instruction would put “young LGBTQ people in jeopardy.”
I’m with the President on this! If passed, this bill will put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy. https://t.co/fJZBzre4yM
— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) February 25, 2022
Nevertheless, he continued, “The Governor decided — he got very, very angry at the company when it took that position — and decided to punish the company by basically stripping it of… First, he wanted to strip essentially the entity that manages the property that Disney World is on. Then he decided that was impractical so he would just take out the board and put his own board in.”
“We felt that was a direct result of the company having exercised its right to free speech taking the position against the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. And that punishing us for exercising our right to free speech was anti-American and anti-business. And I felt that it was really important for us to stand up for our rights and simply ask the question,” he pivoted.
Despite claiming everything had to with the falsely named ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, Iger then claimed it had nothing to do with it, “It wasn’t about the Don’t Say Gay’ bill at that point. It was about does the company have a right to free speech and if it exercises that right to free speech it should not face a retribution because it has done. And that’s what we thought was going on. So there’s a lawsuit that we filed that is very specific to that.”
Bob Iger via New York Times Events YouTube
Iger has made the claim that Florida retaliated against Disney multiple times. He previously did so during the company’s Q2 2023 Earnings Results webcast.
He said during the call, “we all know there was no concerted effort to do anything to dismantle what was once called Reedy Creek Special District (RCID) until we spoke out on the legislation. So this is plainly a matter of retaliation while the rest of the Florida special districts continue operating, basically, as they were.”
Legal analyst Andrew Esquire reacted to this claim at the time saying, “Disney was never punished for that. RCID is not Disney. Once again, this is what he keeps doing. Bob Iger and he’s done it once on a previous call and now he’s doing it again. He’s saying, ‘They punished us.’ What did they do to you, Disney? They actually did nothing to Disney directly. Nothing.”
“Okay, they changed the district, but the district isn’t Disney. You’ve had to certify that,” Esquire said. “So either you’re confessing to securities fraud and saying that the entire time you were Disney so there’s tax fraud, securities fraud, a bunch of Florida crimes that have been broken. But this is what you are saying here. If you’re saying you’re RCID, well, yeah, there’s going to be issues there. But this is not the worst and this is not where he digs himself in deeper.
Iger would go on to explain his decision to have the company stop advertising on X, “By [Elon Musk] taking the position he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the associated with that position and Elon Musk and X was not necessarily a positive one, and we decided we would pull our advertising.”
Iger then revealed this seemingly moral decision to pull advertisements is not one at all, “We are now allowing entities at the company to use X as a platform to communicate, ABC News is a good example of that, ESPN, another.”
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 27: (L-R) The Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and Chris Pratt attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 World Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on April 27, 2023. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney)
Iger’s revelation about X shows that none of the political statements that The Walt Disney Company makes have an ounce of credibility. The idea that the decisions he’s making are good for business can clearly be seen by the fruits that they have born. Just looking at the month of November, the company has torched around half a billion dollars on just The Marvels and Wish.
Shows on Disney+ are seeing less viewership than shows that released back in 2020 when the streaming service had less subscribers. Merchandise sales are in decline. Theme park attendance was reported to be in decline back in July.
If the decision to suspend advertising on X was truly done out of a sense of morality, Iger would have had all Disney accounts and their affiliates stop using the platform altogether. He’s clearly not doing that, and thus his entire strategy to crouch the decision as some moral high ground completely falls apart. Furthermore, he never even explained what he found objectionable with Musk’s comments simply calling it “not necessarily a positive one.”
Is that the bar The Walt Disney Company has? If that’s the case they should start firing a whole of their employees because the messages they have put into their shows are not positive at all. They are very damaging.
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 27: (L-R) The Walt Disney Company Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger and Bradley Cooper attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 World Premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on April 27, 2023. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney)
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