A video from 2021 shows The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger telling employees they should be less cautious about engaging in political messaging as representatives of the company and that they should do so “without retribution.”
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)
Journalist Christopher Rufo shared the clip to X that sees Iger state, “Bob [Chapek] has talked about this eloquently since he’s become CEO. I’ll say a couple of things about it. We’ve tended to shy away from politics and in doing so I think we shied away from talking about issues that aren’t political at all like the issues that we’re talking about today.”
He continued, “Because we believe in doing so maybe it looks like we are taking a stand. And in reality we should be taking a stand. By the way I take responsibility for this. I was CEO for 15 years. I managed the company’s public facing processes and how we were portraying ourselves.”
EXCLUSIVE: In January 2021, then-Disney chairman Bob Iger told employees he was committing the company to “taking a stand” on politics because of January 6, then praised himself for making Black Panther, which he said was an example of “diversity and inclusion.” pic.twitter.com/Rb41540cGW
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 13, 2024
Iger went on, “I think we have to be less cautious, as I think Bob [Chapek] was just alluding to, about such things and not be concerned. Like just commenting about what happened in Washington last week. That’s not political on our part at all.”
“We know that we saw was fundamentally wrong and it was rooted in hatred, and disrespect, and contempt, and intolerance. And we should feel free as a company to comment about that without retribution,” he said.
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)
He then shared, “Another thing I want to say that I learned these last nine to twelve months. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done in terms of diversity and inclusion on screen. When we did Coco, for instance at Pixar, a great example of that, or Tiana, or, of course Black Panther is one of the great examples of that.
“I allowed those things to make me feel a bit complacent in a sense,” he said. “It’s not that I wanted to be that way, but I thought, ‘We did Black Panther, how great are we?’ And it caused me to not focus as much as I should have on the culture of the company and the environment, and the voices that were telling those stories as opposed to how they were portrayed on the screen.”
Letitia Wright as Shuri in Marvel Studios‘ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.
Iger’s comments here are not out of the ordinary. When he returned as CEO to The Walt Disney Company in November 2022, he hosted a town hall with Disney employees. Iger was asked how he would respond to the company actively campaigning to have children in kindergarten through third grade exposed to materials on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In response to the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, Iger said Disney would still promote “inclusion,” but suggested that the company must strike a “delicate balance” and “listen to [its] audience” and “have respect for the people that [it’s] serving.” This is a retreat. pic.twitter.com/bZBnQdm616
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) November 29, 2022
He said, “Well, first of all, our LGBTQ employees are very important to us and we care deeply about them. That is a given.”
“Secondly, this company has been telling stories for a hundred years and those stories have had a meaningful, positive impact on the world. And one of the reasons that they’ve had a meaningful, positive impact is one of our core values is inclusion, acceptance, and tolerance. And we can’t lose that. We just can’t lose that,” he continued.
He then shared Black Panther as an example, ““I think about Black Panther and the impact that had on the world, or a film like Coco, I could go on and on, and how we actually changed the world for the good. It must continue.”
Winston Duke as M’Baku in Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER. Photo by Eli Adé. © 2022 MARVEL.
READ: Disney CEO Bob Iger Attempts to Justify Weighing In On Political Issues As Audiences Flee
“We also — when you tell stories it’s a delicate balance,” he said. “You’re talking to an audience, but it’s also important to listen to an audience. It’s important to have respect for the people that you’re serving, that you are trying to reach, and not have disdain for it.”
He then stated, “That said we’re not going to make everybody happy all the time and we’re not going to try to. We’re certainly not going to lessen our core values in order to make everybody happy all the time. So it’s complicated and there’s a balance.”
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Iger then went on to indicate he and his Disney are the arbiters of morality, “And at one point, I said, ‘We do what we believe is right,’ and someone criticized me saying, ‘Well, who are you to say that’s right?’ Well, when you are in a job like mine or you are responsible for the storytelling that many of you are responsible for, you get paid to have a sense for what is right. Not everybody will agree with you.”
“That’s just not the way the world is these days, but it doesn’t mean you should stop trying to do the right thing,” he concluded.
(L-R): Charlie Cox as Daredevil/Matt Murdock and Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer “Jen” Walters in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2022 MARVEL.
Iger also attempted to blackmail the state of Georgia back in 2019 in order to discourage the passage of the state’s pro-life heartbeat bill.
Iger told Reuters, “Well, I think if it becomes law it will be very difficult to produce there. I rather doubt we will. I think many people who work for us will not want to work there and we will have to heed their wishes in that regard.”
Rufo does good work getting these clips, but after that it’s an utter disaster. Iger has been using Disney as his personal political weapon well before 2021.
In 2019 he attempted to blackmail the state of Georgia:pic.twitter.com/1Lq6E9oqGj https://t.co/05ybNO9Pm2
— Rosary Warrior John F Trent (@jftrent) February 13, 2024
What do you make of Iger’s comments?
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