It is a familiar pattern. Media outlets pick sides in a legal dispute and then distort the merits of the claims in favor of that party. In the fight between Disney and Florida, the media not only misrepresented a popular Florida parental rights bill (including falsely calling it the “Don’t Say Gay” law) but heralded Disney’s decision to enter the political fray to oppose the law. It then portrayed Disney’s legal moves to block state efforts to regain regulatory control over the company as brilliant and overwhelming. Some of us disagreed on all of those points, including the prospects of Disney’s ill-considered litigation strategy. Last week, that strategy collapsed with a settlement in which Disney decided to just “Let it go” and these same media outlets simply shrugged and moved on.
In a raw muscle play, Disney had its hand-picked board (the Reedy Creek Improvement District) effectively transfer authority to the company just before it was disbanded. Many in the media were thrilled by the move despite the unlikelihood of its being sustained legally.
As I wrote at the time, it would be ridiculous for a court to rule that a company could stop a state from removing special treatment for a corporation like Disney. Even as the company racked up losses in court, the media and legal experts heralded its brilliance and toughness.
In the meantime, as Disney itself admitted that it was losing money due to its political agenda, the media heaped praise on the corporation.
When it came to the lawsuits, the media portrayed the moves as brilliant and mocked Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., as outgunned as some of us struggled with how Disney could possibly prevail in the long term.
NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd insisted that Republicans had “better be careful going after Disney.” MSNBC host and former 2020 Biden campaign aide Symone Sanders-Townsend agreed and said “Oh, my money’s on the Disney lobbyists, honey. My money is on the Disney lobbyists.”
On a “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough insisted “you can’t beat Disney.” MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch agreed: DeSantis is “fighting a fight he can’t win, and this, to me, is a precursor of him on a bigger national stage. And he’s just stupid. It’s a stupid, stupid play.”
Vox wrote that “Disney is proving to be the foe that will not die.” Another Vox headline read “How Disney just beat Ron DeSantis.”
The problem is that Disney was never winning, but viewers were not told that. The company was gushing money while losing in court. In the end, the Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act continued to garner overwhelming support in the state. DeSantis wrestled control away from Disney’s handpicked board and now Disney has dropped its challenge after suffering a series of losses in court. The Florida changes will be enforced, the new board will continue to regulate Disney, and the transferred authority from Disney’s board is null and void. So what did Disney gain?
The response from the media? Crickets.
For Disney’s part, it spent millions of dollars, alienated millions of customers, and created precedent against itself. It literally achieved nothing material from its litigation against the state beyond driving up its own costs and reinforcing the regulatory authority against the company. It then walked away.
The order from the top was clear, if belated:
Let it go, let it goCan’t hold it back anymoreLet it go, let it goTurn away and slam the door
A better way to catch Disney’s Micky Mouse
JT doesn’t much talk about his buddies working for trump. Here is a description of one of trumps best buds
“Eastman has been found guilty of seven counts of just such moral turpitude.”
Watch it JT, your defense of free speech when it is really insurrection might find you in trouble some day.
Ahhhh, yes! We know when our leftist friends are losing, they have to resort to thinly veiled threats at the good professor from their parents basement.
Your such a big man!
Threat? Shows why you don’t see Jan 6 as an insurrection.
No threat, just pointing out that oh so many of trump lawyers are in trouble. Just don’t want JT to fall into the same group.
Another Perry Mason heard from. Why is my money on Prof. Turley?
@Anonymi:
That’s because they are figments of your imagination. And even if they weren’t, given the average person isn’t a bag of irrational prejudices like you have unabashedly proven yourself to be, everyday, they likely wouldn’t care.
James, idiocy resides in Lefti-Land. Stupid people like the Bug are waiting with glee for JK Rowling to return home and be arrested.
I will say this, Comstock, most probably, thought he was doing the right thing. Now his concept of what is right was based on his rather puritanical understanding of good vs evil from his understanding of the Christian Bible. While times and populations have changed since the first Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock, the concept of a culture based on agreed upon values being necessary for that culture to exist and thrive was one of the main reasons those Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic. They were pushed out by the very cultural values of England that saw them as disruptive and dangerous. How can we expect to survive unless we stick to that “melting pot” concept of all new citizens adapting themselves to our common culture (and common, ie equally agreed upon and shared values)? Comstock was just being consistent to what had been the commonly agreed upon necessity of a core of morals that would ensure a continuity of that pre-existing ethos that was developing in America. We need to understand that when we were pushed into considering multiculturalism in place of a melting pot we began to see our nation fragment almost now to the point were there is no commonly agreed upon values and morals. This is the stuff that brings down nations and anyone slightly familiar with world history is keenly aware of what path we are on. Comtocks values may seem strick and out of sync with today’s mores but it is today’s very mish-mash of values or lack there of that has caused the chaos in our nation. Now we need to decide; shall we return to a common agreed upon culture to mark the nature of this nation or should we continue to devolve in to utter chaos and dissolution? The choice is ours, not to defend or castigate Comstock. We either change his laws to more easily fit the nature of life in the 21st century or we allow his concept of cultural integrity to be thrown to the wind and a free-for-all will ensue such as we are seeing to day with men in women’s locker rooms and drag queens casting our for young victims via our local libraries. We cannot have it both ways and if you doubt this – just read your history and/or look at Britain or France, for example, as our future. Even those two nations are ruing the day they allowed so many immigrants to dilute their culture to the point of obscurity.
Jon, AKA the Bug, is a consistently disliked disrupter who loves pushing stupid ideas. Turley clarified the Disney affair in this post. I wonder if the Bug recognizes how ridiculous he looks and sounds.
“The problem is that Disney was never winning, but viewers were not told that. The company was gushing money while losing in court. In the end, the Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act continued to garner overwhelming support in the state. DeSantis wrestled control away from Disney’s handpicked board and now Disney has dropped its challenge after suffering a series of losses in court.
The response from the media? Crickets.”
S. Meyer,
Of course he does not recognize how ridiculous he looks and sounds. Just like MSM, he just over looks and ignores his own failures.
The media does not dispense neutral news, it uses events to push its agenda; which is the same “fundamental transformation” agenda of the prog/left (to which they have been indoctrinated to support at all cost – including their reputations as newspeople) Nothing new here except another reinforcement of our previous conclusion that the media is a corrupt tool of the left.
Whimsicalmama,
Well said.
They do seem determined to force their agenda down our throats.
And then get all foot stomping mad when we just say, “No.”
Off topic but ATT just announced that they managed to get 65 million customers’ data stolen including social security numbers. Why do they need our socials to sell us cell phone service? In Europe there are strict laws governing privacy. You’re not allowed to ask for information that you don’t need. The worst thing is that you know in advance they’re going to have a breach because they always do sooner or later but you’re forced to give them the information anyway unless you want to communicate via carrier pigeons.
Some economics school should put together a class that highlights all cases where a company went “woke,” and the ramifications of going “woke.”
Do a deep dive into not only the economics of it, the changes in the company’s personnel, marketing changes and costs to mitigate loss of consumers or attempts to regain consumers.
As long a Disney continues to push the “woke” agenda, I expect them to continue to lose.
Someone noted yesterday future historians will look back at this era as The Second Dark Age. Yes.
If the mainstream media started doing segments
about all the times they got it wrong
there wouldn’t be time left for anything else.
-Cat
Disney was just another company captured by the leftist lunatic fringe, and enabled by fellow travelers in corporate media. Both lost credibility. Disney may eventually recover, but leftist corporate media has dug itself a credibility hole so deep that it may never escape. You reference multiple comments made on MSNBC as if it were still a news network, rather than an ongoing leftist clown show. I understand the point, but it has become almost as silly as referencing something said by the clown team on The View. No disrespect meant to either, but they are leftist propagandists serving the lunatic fringe of the democrat party. They do a respectable job in that endeavor, but their audiences are dependent on the further spread of the Woke Mind Virus – which is hopefully being contained.
Turley rehashes the right wing spin on this, but in truth it was a settlement because both sides wanted to move on. DeSantis did not win here. Now that his Presidential campaign is over, you hear a lot less from him about Disney and his Don’t Say Gay Law seems to be resulting in a lot of people with no kids in school making a lot of dumb challenges to books. Polls show a lot of parents want to leave the state because of the Don’t Say Gay law. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/views-fl-hb1557-press-release/ Indeed, a lot of people leaving Florida because of a lot of problems DeSantis does not seem to be addressing while he was focused on Disney and Don’t Say Gay. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/leaving-florida-rcna142316
Bubba said: “DeSantis did not win here”
No, I’m pretty sure that DeSantis won.
Bzzzt. Florida won everything in this “settlement”; Disney got nothing. The same is true for the “settlement” two weeks ago on this alleged “don’t say gay” law: The plaintiffs got absolutely nothing at all, they just gave up and “settled” for a statement that Florida had been perfectly willing to give them right from the beginning!
Newsflash: There is no such law as “don’t say gay”. Every single thing the Democrats alleged about this law, including the name, was a lie. Nothing in the law prevents anyone from saying “gay” as often as they like. Nothing in the law prevents a gay teacher from mentioning that fact to his class, if it comes up in conversation. Nothing in the law prevents discussion in the classroom of topics related to gay people. All the law bans is classroom instruction about sex that is not appropriate to the students’ age. Which means in Kindergarten to Grade 3 there should be no talk of sex at all, because it’s just not appropriate.
I live in Florida and have yet to meet anyone saying they want to move out of the state because of the so called “Anti-Gay Law”. Never happens
Delusional much? You are a tool when you repeat the “Don’t Say Gay” false mantra. You might as well throw in “Hands up, don’t shoot.” And yes, because of DeSantis, parents are “leaving Florida” and fleeing to New York and California in droves–the numbers show it (not). The left spews out endless lies, and then cites an obvious hit piece by NBC “news”, cherry-picking a half-dozen people to defend these lies. Most non-woke, non-indigent Floridians disagree with your assertions. Just look at the overall population growth of the state, not the outliers who left.
To quote a famous American Philosopher, Roseanne Rosannadanna,
https://www.google.com/search?q=rosanne+rosanna+danna+never+mind&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1050US1050&oq=rosanne+rosandana&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgCEAAYChiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGAoYgAQyCQgCEAAYChiABDIJCAMQABgKGIAEMgkIBBAAGAoYgAQyCQgFEAAYChiABDIJCAYQABgKGIAEMgkIBxAAGAoYgAQyCQgIEAAYChiABDIJCAkQABgKGIAE0gEIOTI0NmowajeoAgiwAgE&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:91fa47f7,vid:OjYoNL4g5Vg,st:0
Has anyone seen the terms of the settlement? Since it involves a State (public) entities, wouldn’t the settlement agreement be available to taxpayers??
MRR said: “Has anyone seen the terms of the settlement? Since it involves a State (public) entities, wouldn’t the settlement agreement be available to taxpayers??”
Can’t help with a link to the settlement language itself, but this Forbes write-up has considerably more detail and analysis than the Fox blurb to which Turley linked:
Disney And DeSantis Board Reach Settlement Agreement—Declares Controversial Contract ‘Null And Void’
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/03/27/disney-and-desantis-board-reach-settlement-agreement-declares-controversial-contract-null-and-void/
Looks like an almost unadulterated win for DeSantis, although he appears to have made at least one good-will concession to Disney in the form of his newest Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board appointment. Making some accommodations are perfectly understandable; Disney brings a lot of tourist money to Florida, and I don’t picture DeSantis as the type of vindictive fool who would amputate his nose to even the score with his face.
Number 6,
Thank you for posting that analysis by Forbes.
I agree with your assessment of, “Looks like an almost unadulterated win for DeSantis,”
Number 6: Here is a good copy of settlement agreement, courtesy of Politico:
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000018e-8071-d570-adaf-a47778d90001
And I agree with your comment.
lin said: “Here is a good copy of settlement agreement”
Thank you very much for the link!
MRR, Bug posted the link on the blog Above the Law. That commentator is a troll and an ignorant person without common sense. The post was from Jon/ Bug, so it was deleted. Go to Above the Law.
The comments below will likely be deleted, so I will answer Bug’s stupidity above his name so I am not deleted. It is suitable for Disney and Florida to have a Disney representative on the board. One needs Disney’s input, but she will not have control, and the state ultimately has control over the board. Bug, you need to learn how businesses function.
Bug mentions mitigations. He doesn’t know what that means and how it applies to the settlement. He is simply throwing out random phrases without any use of critical thinking. Tell us what mitigation helped Disney and hurt Florida. Florida and Disney have similar business interests so each is interested in the other doing well.
Yesterday, the poster known as Dennis McIntyre was carrying on about the “tremendous victory” of the Democrat who ran on abortion rights in Alabama District 10.
My reply was worth posting here, because it demonstrates this posters constant misrepresentation of facts and his inability to grasp much beyond the headlines he reposts here from Vox, The Atlantic, and Media-ite.
Reader beware, if you choose to take any of his posts seriously.
What the low information im-poster Mcinlyre fails to report is that the democrat received 3715 votes in a district with over 41,000 registered voters. Does that seem like a seed change to Mr. McInlyre? Wow, she managed to find 3700 abortion proponents in Madison County, which is only 61% white and has a mean age much lower than the state. Is he dreaming of a blue tsunami in Alabama??? Or somehow suggesting this one off is some harbinger of things to come? Wishful thinking at best.
Also, Alabama is not a monolith. Something else his low IQ seems unable to grasp. Ever since he made the comment that deep red AL was the wild west because of its high gun violence rate, failing to notice that 80% of the violence was in deep blue Birmingham.
Mr McInlyre, please start reading the second page before you come here to crow about your newfound expertise.
And finally…Rachel Maddow,,,,seriously sir????
The Media is just manipulating ‘The Big Board’ [Walt Disney Co – NYSE: DIS] at the behest of the Owners of Super Shares of the Stock.
The Trials & Tribulations / Up’s & Down’s of the Stock price allows the Whales to make money in the arbitrage.
So much of the Media & Markets are the syncopation of News releases (The Trials & Tribulations, Up’s & Down’s) and Trade Timing.
-Booyah- It’s ‘Show Time’ for Disney!
(e.g.: Jim Cramer – CelebrityNetWorth.com has listed Jim Cramer’s net worth as $150 million since mid-2022)
https://www.vestinda.com/academy/dis-disney-arbitrage-unlocking-profits-in-disneys-stock
https://twitter.com/InsideArbitrage/status/1755417846379692339
The Disney Whale Pod is on the Move. Michael Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasino in | CEO Bob Iger out.
https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/nelson-peltz-two-disney-board-members-vote-against-1235894296/
https://www.thewrap.com/nelson-peltz-names-the-2-longtime-disney-board-members-targeted-in-proxy-fight/
Whale Watching:
Exclusive: Disney prevails over Trian in board fight
By: Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Greg Roumeliotis ~ April 3, 2024
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/disney-prevails-over-trian-board-fight-sources-say-2024-04-03/
Vanguard’s vote helps extend Disney’s lead in boardroom fight
By: Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Dawn Chmielewski ~ April 2, 2024
https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/norges-bank-investment-management-backs-disney-board-room-fight-with-hedge-funds-2024-04-02/
US pension fund CalPERS backs Peltz, Rasulo in Disney board battle
By: Svea Herbst-Bayliss ~ March 29, 2024
[Link] reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-pension-fund-calpers-votes-peltz-rasulo-disney-boardroom-fight-2024-03-29/
Mouse Trapped!
And the stench of the dead mouse is gradually starting to clear from the air.
Disney needs to return to the type of company when Walt Disney was alive. It was an Excellent company. Then the WOKE Elite Dem Liberal crowd took over with the help of Woke Funds. The entire MGMT team all the way down needs to GO. Also, some of the Disney family need to go away, who support WOKENESS. It is great that Florida stood up to Disney. Disney has wasted a lot of money for Wokeness – Go Woke Go BROKE
Define woke.
Woke is having your daughter playing sports against men and then being forced to change with them after the event.
Woke is thinking you can change your biological sex based on the day of the week.
Woke is a SC Justice not being able to define what a “woman” is.
Woke is promoting pornography in elementary schools.
Woke is trying to get children to think they are a the opposite sex from their biological birth, when the children cannot even understand the concept.
Woke is using DEI to discriminate against a group of people because they just so happen to do well.
Woke is attacking women’s rights.
Being beholden to people who use the mentally weak and frail as cudgels to politically seduce suburban white women and physically seduce children.
@Wally
Woke is defining the reality of all existence by whatever placates your personal anxiety as an attempt to combat manufactured crises in a a self-determined reality, and then projecting it all onto society writ large in order to avoid taking any responsibility for your own thoughts, mentality, information level, or actions, or to gain power over others, usually under the guise of social justice or activism. It is essentially a control mechanism born of ignorance or hostility or both, masquerading as intelligence and enlightenment.
As ideology it can be easily equated to classical Marxism. It could also be summed up as the apex of selfish ignorance. Adherents take action on their own behalf and their own personal comfort under the guise of empathy even though anyone who opposes the narrative that enables it all will happily be laid waste to. It is ego run riot. It is projected hatred and self-hatred onto anyone and everyone that crosses its path.
James,
Great comment!
@Upstate
All of your comments a great and thought provoking; some of mine are very stupid and reactionary. Thanks for being a presence here and for largely keeping a cool head. I think we all enjoy it. 👍🏼
Hopefully Florida will GET ALL LEGAL Costs paid from Disney!!!
First!
Just kidding…
The interesting thing here is the unanswered question of why Disney went woke in the first place.
This is something that one has to dig into …
It would be a good lesson for all to learn.
-G
Gumby said: “the unanswered question of why Disney went woke in the first place”
I don’t have any inside information, but I think that it could have started as a pure business decision. At one time. they may have viewed the LBGT community as underserved in relation to potential revenue to be gleaned from that sector, and decided they could make a lot of money correcting the situation. Then it got out of hand, with the glittery tail ultimately wagging the Disney dog.
“. . . why Disney went woke in the first place.”
Because they keep hiring upper-level managers propagandized with the Woke ideology in college. And they keep peddling that Woke training to their employees, designed by those propagandized by Woke colleges.
The best (worst?) example I know of is Alissa Heinerscheid, the marketing VP responsible for Bud Light circling the toilet. She graduated from Harvard.
What’s taught in the universities today, is cultural policy tomorrow.
Sam,
That, Bud Light, is what happens when they bring wokeism/activism to work or try to force wokism in the faces of their normal consumers.
Just like no one needed, wanted the Biden admin forcing Trans Viewing day in the faces of millions on Easter.
Years
Yeats ago, I frequented the movie theater and was pleased that there were so many clever and well made movies. Then something happened, including COVID and Hollywood went off the cliff, including Disney. I have attended three Hollywood produced films in the past five or six years, Top Gun and Dune (1&2).
Business 101 teaches that a business sells more if there is a large customer base for their product.The minute a business enters into the political arena, they automatically lose half their potential customers. Has the collective IQ of business “leaders” plummeted so quickly?
This isn’t different to understand.
I have attended three Hollywood produced films in the past five or six years,
The local 9 plex mailed out flyer with a buy one get one offer. We looked at the offerings and stayed home. years ago we did 4-5 movies a month. Like you, the last theater movie I saw was the Top Gun sequel.
E.M.
I think it was even before COVID that Hollywood went stupid.
Rather then focus on things like a good plot, good writing, good actors, good direction, good editing, they went for rebooting everything and replacing all those good things that made the originals good.
And now you have to have a token minority group represented. Read recently some guy was complaining there were no POC in a TV show. It was Shogun!