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The most direct evidence of a Disney clampdown is here. The controversial Ton Newton, architect of Reimagine Tomorrow, was silenced from an interview on diversity.
It may be a signal of something bigger or it may be all there is to this story. If it’s all there is, it’s plenty big enough. The Walt Disney Company refused to allow Chief Diversity Officer LaTondra Newton, architect of the Reimagine Tomorrow program at Disney, to speak to The Hollywood Reporter for an article focused on issues related to her. The article by Rebecca Sun titled “Hollywood’s Chief Diversity Officers Tell All” is absent the most famous CDO in all of Hollywood: Ton.
And the wording here is worth taking note:
This year, after Florida’s legislature passed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill banning teachers from discussing gender and sexual orientation in classrooms, Disney (given its theme parks and significant investment in the state) came under pressure from its employees for its financial contributions to anti-gay Florida officials as well as its initial silence over the legislation. On March 2, CDO Latondra Newton sent out an internal statement, titled “Showing Support for Our LGBTQ+ Community,” promising that the company would discuss the “issues of concern” at gatherings scheduled for March 22 and April 13. “Our hope in having a CDO would be to hold the company to account, rather than release statements that toe the company line,” read a response to Disney leadership signed by “the queer/LGBTQIA+ employees of The Walt Disney Co. and their allies” that was posted on social media March 8. “We need an advocate, not a figurehead.”
Disney declined to make Newton available for comment, but her counterparts acknowledge the skepticism that surrounds the job. “We’re trying to make a change within a capitalist corporate situation, so you have to be a lot of different people for a lot of different people,” says Netflix’s Myers. “I try to stay close to the people experiencing the most direct impact, and you have to come up and down [the organizational ranks]. As a leader, to the extent I can, [I] communicate the stakes and details. [Sometimes] you have to call people out, but you’ve got to do it in a compassionate way that they still want to be part of the change.”
There are a few things to correct here. It’s a little disconcerting that we have to correct what should be an objective bit of journalism, but by now we all know how this works:
- The bill in discussion banned classroom discussions of gender and sexual theory in preschool through third grade classrooms. It did not ban teachers from discussing gender and/or sexual orientation in all classrooms.
- Disney came under little pressure from their Florida employees. A grand total of one individual protested at Walt Disney World, photo included below. The pressure came from an organization called “Disney Walkout” which seems to have been created via collaboration with rogue leadership elements and mostly assisted via Pixar, Disney Animation Studios and Lucasfilm.
- Ton Newton did make those statements, which were antithetical to what Bob Chapek and Geoff Morrell were saying at the time.
The lone protester who showed up on the “Disney Walkout Day” at Walt Disney World.
The important part of this story, however, is the wording in the second paragraph quoted. Let’s review it again:
“Disney declined to make Newton available for comment, but her counterparts acknowledge the skepticism that surrounds the job.”
There’s an important distinction here that the author is relaying and we need to pay attention to. Who declined? Ton didn’t decline. The Hollywood Reporter didn’t decline. Disney declined. And Ton Newton is the CDO… she’s theoretically one level lower than Bob Chapek, right? So who declined to let Ton Newton speak to The Hollywood Reporter?
It could be CEO, Bob Chapek. It could be Chairperson for the Board of Directors, Susan Arnold. But it’s probably, almost-definitely Bob Chapek.
Interesting…
Maybe Bob’s not too happy with that hostage video he had to do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDw2t5EcI18
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Color me NOT surprised at all. We have been routinely remarking that Disney has completely clamped down on this toxic culture that had damaged the company financially and politically. It’s what any sane organization would do when some of their employees go rogue like this. Disney might not be able to fire people like Ton Newton but for the optics, but they sure can put a muzzle on the problem. I think the most likely course going forward is a slow unwinding of the department through attrition by not renewing certain contracts when the time comes and then “merging” that pseudo-division into Human Resources where it will be more quietly snuffed out.
A cynical man might say this is the point she does an exclusive interview in which she suggests that her forced exclusion was evidence of Chapek’s racism/sexism.
Maybe I’m cynical then… because that wouldn’t shock me. It would be a heck of a news day though.
If she does that, it will have to be after she resigns (provided there are not any NDAs that interfere with that). If it’s off the record, and traced back to her, she will be fired (Peter Rice is a warning example to others).
I didn’t think Disney had the nerve to silence the big head of Diversity. This might just very well force her to resign so she doesn’t need to be fired. ? haha.
Well that’s one piece of good news.
The Hollywood Reporter interviewed 13 CDOs. Not one was Hispanic. And last week the NYTs writes a story about a God-fearing, country-loving Latina who just won a congressional seat a in a 90% Mexican-American district: The Rise of the Far-Right Latina.
A Realignment is Occurring
That’s funny. Chapek’s video isn’t available…
I’d like to point out that the author of the article explicitly stated “Disney declined”. There are other ways to phrase such things, such as “she was not available at time of writing”. But instead we are told the corporation did not make her available. This, to misquote Mr Pasha, was intentional in my opinion.
I hope she’s next fired and end this Reimagine Tomorrow nonsense.
Sorry, I meant to say I hope she’s next to be fired and end this Reimagine Tomorrow nonsense.
Hopeful news. Chapek should disband the diversity/inclusivity/racial equity departments. These are core tenets of Socialism; use “fluffy” terms like these…but in practice use superficial things to awards some, hinder others. Unity is what is needed, via work ethic. Hopefully Lucasfilm social media manager Theresa Helmer is one that is scrutinized to get the boot. To add the mess, “Disney has announced that Theresa Helmer has been promoted to Disney Channel’s senior leadership team as executive director, Integrated Content Strategy and Development, a newly created role designed to accelerate racial and cultural diversity and inclusion in creative content for a global audience of kids age 2-14.” From an article August 2021…oh the damage done. “You don’t like Reva..you’re all racists!”….
A petition on change, created March 5, 2022, with the following title, was declared a victory with less than 5,000 signers: Disney – denounce the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and vow not to fund the sponsors again. Visit change and take a look.
I hope these CDO’s get to reimagine unemployment soon.
Agreed! It has to end and soon.
The far-left wokist agenda is has been an absolute gift to the far-right and has been and absolute boon to America’s enemies – setting everyone against each other going at each others’ throats, and forcing moderate, average people to choose a side – often with a slightly more extreme position than they otherwise sensibly would. This in turn cause chaos, confusion which invariably leads to a lack of critical thinking, and then adds conformation bias. All the while, those external enemies looking in can carry on their nasty deeds without the attention and scrutiny needed to keep that enemy in check…..
Far-right sensiblities are never normally able to permeate that well with the general populace, often coming across as crass and ham-fisted. It takes much manipulation using populist language to slide the message into peoples’ psyches.
The far-left wokists have easy (had) access to Hollywood.
In my opinion what Chapek is doing, getting rid of the politics in entertainment, is not just saving Disney. It’s not just saving American (and in turn, Western) culture, he is inadvertently saving the USA from itself. I really mean that. Both China and Russia have been up to no good whilst we’ve been fighting amongst ourselves. Its about time we stopped fighting these petty differences, look around and look out for our friends, allies, and – closer to home – each other.
Go get ’em Bob!
(For disclourse, I am a moderate, and consider Woke and far-right the flipsides of the same dangerous coin. I am interested in geopolitics, not agenda politics. I want entertainment I consume to NOT feed myself or anyone else these destructive messages, and to treat me as a consumer with at least some element of intellegence and critical thought.)