{"id":1469883,"date":"2024-06-07T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T07:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1469883"},"modified":"2024-06-07T03:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T07:30:00","slug":"how-bob-iger-dei-and-wokism-broke-disneys-trust-with-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-bob-iger-dei-and-wokism-broke-disneys-trust-with-america\/1469883\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bob Iger, DEI, And Wokism Broke Disney’s Trust With America"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Bob Iger, DEI, And Wokism Broke Disney’s Trust With America<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Richard Truesdell via American Greatness,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

There is something of a subculture on YouTube of armchair analysts and commentators,\u00a0WDW Pro,<\/a>\u00a0Valliant Renegade<\/a>, and\u00a0ClownfishTV,<\/a>\u00a0to name just three (beyond traditional financial websites like\u00a0CNBC<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Seeking Alpha<\/a>), who track every cultural, corporate, programming, and financial move of The Walt Disney Company, previously one of America\u2019s most iconic and trusted companies. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Note: I used the past tense in describing The Walt Disney Company. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It is no longer one of America\u2019s most trusted brands, and it\u2019s about to lose its iconic status.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

How did this happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

On May 7, 2024, in the wake of its successful battle to keep activist investor Nelson Peltz off its Board of Directors back in April (after which\u00a0Peltz liquidated his Disney holdings,<\/a>\u00a0walking away with more than $1 billion), Disney CEO Bob Iger held Disney\u2019s quarterly earnings call, during which its stock tanked almost 10%, losing $20 billion in its market cap. While it has recovered a bit, to $105 a share, it\u2019s well below its 52-week high, $123.72, and off its all-time highest closing price of $201.91 on March 8, 2021. Those investors who abandoned Peltz in his proxy battle for two seats on the Disney Board of Directors can now lick their financial wounds.<\/p>\n

There is speculation in the financial community that if Disney stock again falls below $90 a share, Peltz could mount\u00a0a third bid<\/a>\u00a0for two or more seats on the Disney board or possibly oust Iger. It\u2019s hilarious to watch\u00a0the New York Times<\/a>\u00a0put its spin on the battle, saying Peltz lost his battle with Iger. Actually, Peltz and his\u00a0Trian Partners<\/a>\u00a0investment group walked away with $1 billion. Yes, Peltz lost the battle, but he won the war.<\/p>\n

Despite the current dip, many stock analysts\u00a0are predicting that Disney stock will rebound<\/a>. That seems unlikely.<\/strong> Here are the reasons why things are likely to get worse, not better, for The Walt Disney Company for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025.<\/p>\n

Disney is one of America\u2019s wokest companies.<\/strong> It sees itself as being out in front on cultural and social issues, especially where Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are concerned. This has been a huge issue in America\u2019s\u2014especially American parents\u2019\u2014loss of trust in the House of Mouse. You can\u2019t watch\u00a0this clip<\/a>\u00a0from Disney programming Vice President Latoya Raveneau bragging about how she pushed LGBTQ messages anywhere she could into Disney\u2019s programming without\u00a0parents\u00a0seeing that agenda. Because of this agenda, Disney parks, Disney feature films, Disney animation, and especially the Disney Channel\u00a0have lost trust<\/a>\u00a0with many parents.<\/p>\n

Disney has lost its decades-long leadership in animation to NBCUniversal\u2019s Dreamworks Animation studio.<\/strong> Its slate of feature films\u2014with their bloated $250,000,000 production budgets requiring a $500,000,000 theatrical run to just break even\u2014has been an unmitigated disaster. Along the way, it has destroyed two of the successful film franchises it acquired during Iger\u2019s first term as CEO: Star Wars and Indiana Jones. And its long-delayed live-action remake of its own 1937 Snow White classic animated film is mired in its own disaster, mostly due to\u00a0woke comments<\/a>\u00a0from its star,\u00a0Rachel Ziegler<\/a>. It was moved back a year from a March 2024 release to 2025. But could its theatrical release be scrapped entirely and go directly to the Disney+ streaming service?<\/p>\n

Related to its film franchises, which also include Marvel and Pixar (which just laid off\u00a0175 employees<\/a>), was the company\u2019s $250,000,000\u00a0misadventure,\u00a0Star Wars<\/em>: Galactic Starcruiser, a $6,000 two-night\u00a0Star Wars<\/em><\/a>-themed\u00a0hotel\u00a0experience that opened on March 1, 2022, and closed on September 30, 2023.<\/strong> It was forced to take a charge against earnings for this catastrophe. This disaster was documented in a\u00a0four-hour viral video<\/a>\u00a0by YouTuber Jenny Nicholson that has received an incredible seven million views in a little more than two weeks. (That was 10 times the number of views\u00a0CNN\u2019s coverage<\/a>\u00a0of the debacle received.)<\/p>\n

On top of its injection of its left-wing DEI agenda, Disney has more nuts-and-bolts financial issues to contend with. <\/strong><\/p>\n

They include:<\/p>\n

Theme park attendance is flatlining.<\/strong> What is the measurement matrix?\u00a0Waiting times<\/a>\u00a0at the most popular attractions at its theme parks, Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, are plummeting. Over the all-important Memorial Day 2024 weekend, waiting times at the most popular attractions at both theme parks were at decade lows (with the exception of during COVID-19). In addition, its newest attraction at Walt Disney World in Florida, Tiana\u2019s Bayou Adventure, which replaced Splash Mountain, has been panned by the Disney faithful.\u00a0This review<\/a>\u00a0is typical.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s\u00a0Disney\u2019s forced acquisition<\/a>\u00a0of the share of the Hulu streaming service it didn\u2019t own (it shared ownership with Comcast), which has been an utter disaster for the company.<\/strong> (As of today\u2019s date, the parties have yet to come to a final agreement on the value of Hulu.) Disney was forced to buy out Comcast\u2019s share, and it is struggling to integrate Hulu into its Disney+ streaming service. This forced payout is now funding Comcast so that it can bid for sporting rights for entities like its recently concluded agreement with\u00a0NASCAR<\/a>\u00a0and the upcoming agreement with the\u00a0NBA<\/a>. Both are in direct competition with one the last of Disney\u2019s crown jewels, ESPN. The sports network is trying to reinvent itself as content distribution moves from cable to streaming. Last July it\u00a0laid off dozens<\/a>\u00a0of employees,\u00a0including high-profile names like Suzy Kolber, Jeff Van Gundy, Jalen Rose, and Steve Young, in what was a cost-cutting move.<\/p>\n

Disney is no longer American parents\u2019 babysitter. Here\u2019s one parent\u2019s\u00a0open letter<\/a>\u00a0to Disney.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I say\u00a0all\u00a0this as a baby boomer who grew up with Disney in the 1950s and 1960s (that will give you an idea of how old I am). Disney\u2019s current values are no longer those of its namesake founder, Walt Disney. Parents, especially those in the center and on the right, that are trying to raise their kids with the traditional values that made America great in the last century,\u00a0no longer trust the House of Mouse. And until there is housecleaning, starting at the top of the C-suite, Disney will not be trusted again.<\/em><\/p>\n

Putting ideology ahead of entertainment<\/a>\u00a0has decimated an American institution. <\/strong>Walt Disney has been spinning in his grave ever since Bob Iger first became CEO back in 2005 during his first term. It continued during the short reign of\u00a0Bob Chapek<\/a>\u00a0from 2020 to 2021, then accelerated at warp speed after Iger returned to the CEO role in 2022, post-COVID. The Walt Disney Company is broken, and until it gets new leadership at the top and refocuses on its core mission, to entertain, it is headed in only one direction: down. <\/strong>And that\u2019s a shame for baby boomers like me who grew up with Walt Disney when our parents could trust the company to deliver wholesome entertainment not tainted by an agenda or ideology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 06\/06\/2024 – 23:30<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/how-bob-iger-dei-and-wokism-broke-disneys-trust-america<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Bob Iger, DEI, And Wokism Broke Disney’s Trust With America Authored by Richard Truesdell via American Greatness, There is something of a subculture on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1469884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1469883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1469883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1469883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1469884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1469883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1469883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1469883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}