Disney boss admits DeSantis won the culture war and Hollywood isn’t happy

Disney boss Bob Iger is at summer camp. It’s a summer camp for billionaires in Sun Valley, Idaho. Iger took time away from whatever it is that billionaires do at summer camp to give an interview to CNBC. He’s probably regretting that decision.

Suddenly Bob Iger doesn’t want to be involved in culture wars. Ahem. Funny how he is changing his tune now that Disney is feeling the pinch. “The last thing that I want for the company is for the company to be drawn into any culture wars.” Iger said that in response to comments Governor DeSantis made last month during a town hall. DeSantis was referring to sexualizing programming for young children.

Last month, DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, said during a town hall that Disney in the past “has been like the all-American company. But they’ve really embraced the idea of getting the sexualized content in the programming for the young kids. And that is just a line that I am not willing to cross.”

Congratulaions, Governor DeSantis. Bob Iger admitted you won the fight against Disney. DeSantis and Disney have been at war for some time, ever since the company bigwigs decided to get involved in Florida politics. At the time, the CEO Bob Chapek decided to get the company involved in the culture wars in a big way and opposed The Parental Rights in Education Act, a bill that leftists call the Don’t Say Gay bill. Leftists wanted to paint DeSantis as a homophobic, transphobic, and any other kind of ‘phobic’ because they assumed he would run for president and had to be dinged. The bill, as we all know, was to protect school children from inappropriate subject matter in the classroom. Young children in grades K-3 were being exposed to propaganda that pushes the transgender agenda. Kindergarteners don’t need to be taught about gender and sex issues in school.

Iger said in the CNBC interview that he doesn’t want lawsuit after lawsuit over culture war issues. He had the stones to deny that Disney is doing what the governor and conservatives are calling out as sexualizing children through Disney programming and movies.

Remember this woman?

https://t.co/DWGQb7Zcvk pic.twitter.com/tAzDQHzo4V

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) July 13, 2023

Let’s take a look.

DISNEY CEO: “The notion that Disney is in any way sexualizing children, quite frankly, is preposterous.”

ROLL THE TAPE. pic.twitter.com/6NP1wexp9a

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) July 13, 2023

Hmm. You be the judge.

Disney theme parks are having a “summer slump” to put it gently. As it turns out, families don’t appreciate Disney pushing a cultural agenda that goes against their values. DeSantis has been very effective in getting the message out and explaining what the Florida bill does. It protects young children in school. Period. Families are the base of Disney sales. It was really stupid, from a business perspective, for Disney to side against its core customers. Sales are down and it’s of their own making.

If you are thinking about visiting Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, now’s the time. You may have the parks to yourself.

Wait times for rides and attractions at both resorts have shortened, according to analysts who track theme park attendance. Videos on social media also show park attendees remarking on thinner crowds.

The reasons behind the slowdown are hard to pin down, but travel experts point to extreme weather and heat in Florida, a waning post-pandemic travel boom and a tense political climate in Florida that has prompted travel warnings from some groups.

Disney CEO Bob Iger attributed Disney World’s recent decline in wait times to an overall slump in Central Florida tourism.

“Florida opened up early during Covid and created huge demand, and didn’t have competition because there were a number of other places, states, that were not open yet,” he said Thursday in an interview with CNBC.

“If you look at the numbers in Florida in 2023 … versus 2022, where not as much was open and Florida was the only game in town, there is a lot more competition today,” he added.

Iger told CNBC he did not have “long-term concerns” about Disney’s theme parks. Disney declined to comment to CNN about park attendance.

No “long-term concerns”, eh? Ok. I’m guessing that stockholders may have different thoughts. To add fuel to the fire, Iger’s comments about no longer wanting to be involved in culture wars has angered Hollywood. Hollywood, as you may have heard, is on strike. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) members currently on strike went nuts on social media over Iger’s comment that now really isn’t a good time to strike.

After telling CNBC’s David Faber Thursday that the labor situation is “very disturbing” and how the Hollywood unions aren’t being realistic about the current financial climate, WGA picketers went postal on social media by pointing out the massive pay disparity between the Disney CEO and most working writers today.

“I understand any labor organization’s desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver,” Iger said. “We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the directors guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we’d like to do the same thing with the actors. There’s a level of expectation that they have, that is just not realistic. And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.”

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is also a target of the strikers and the two men are being compared for their missteps in the media. Iger, though, jumped in without hesitation. Abigail Disney, daughter of Roy Disney and a social activist, weighed in.

You can only call your workers and partners “unrealistic” if you cannot see beyond the confines of the very narrow and morally bankrupt business ideology that has set your company on this long track toward exploitation and injustice. #Disney #Iger #WritersStrike #SAGAFTRA https://t.co/SDtrLzflB8

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) July 13, 2023

Congratulations, I guess, to David Zaslav for not having made these comments this time. https://t.co/SBc3VsvZ40

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) July 13, 2023

Hollywood actors joined the WGA on strike at midnight Thursday. It is the first dual work stoppage in 63 years. The largest union in Hollywood, SAG-AFTRA, represents 160,000 actors. They demand base pay and residual pay increases, much the same as WGA demands. They also want job protection against being replaced by artificial intelligence.

The best part of all of this is that Bob Iger, the man brought back to save Disney from past leadership who took the company down the path of social justice warriorism, now admits he doesn’t want any part of culture wars. He knows it is a financial disaster for Disney. The moral of the story is don’t piss off American parents. Enough is enough and they are speaking out.

Governor DeSantis is right about Disney. He was right all along.