Disney has been put on notice. The legal organization America First Legal has written a letter to Disney – specifically to CEO Bob Iger and Chairman of the Board of Directors Mark G. Parker – outlining how it has failed to live up to its obligations to its shareholders by neglecting to disclose the socio-political agenda it has been infusing its entertainment with. This includes DEI hiring practices, which the letter describes as in violation of federal law, and its programming geared towards children, which is often sexual in nature and which is hidden from parents by excluding it from all but the “Junior Mode” kids’ profile on Disney+, among other things. The letter also demonstrates how these practices have harmed the company’s profits. They then give a series of disturbing examples, which the letter says is “not exhaustive.” The AFL demands that Disney make the letter available to shareholders at their next meeting on April 3, 2024, and that it prepare for “litigation.” The AFL posted highlights from the letter on X, a few of which you can see below (and you can read the whole letter here):
/1🚨BREAKING — We sent a demand letter to Disney’s CEO & Board of Directors notifying them of, and documenting, the following:
✔️Breach of fiduciary duty
✔️Misleading shareholders
✔️Intentional violations of federal civil rights law
✔️Mismanagement erasing 40% of valueTHREAD: pic.twitter.com/7tNVKAA7ZB
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 27, 2024
/4 For example, Disney, along with Sundance Institute, runs a grant program that provides $25,000 to “Underrepresented Directors,” which it defines as “women, AAPI, Black, Indigenous/Native, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, disability-identifying, and religiously marginalized individuals.” pic.twitter.com/3hOquZDYeo
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 27, 2024
/10 As a result, shareholders have suffered a bloodbath. pic.twitter.com/9B57f5PDy7
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 27, 2024
/18 Young children can view this program and an episode of Muppets Babies where Gonzo cross-dresses as a female princess in this take on the classic Cinderella story. Ironically, “Junior Mode” profiles can view this episode but cannot view classic, uncontroversial Disney films… pic.twitter.com/m4Ber5EqVO
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 27, 2024
/23 …That children can diagnose themselves as transgender: pic.twitter.com/rziBfz1m0B
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) March 27, 2024
The evidence in this letter is pretty damning, and some of the things Disney has been putting in its children’s shows are enough to make your skin crawl. This goes beyond a gay kiss in Lightyear; it’s full-on sexual indoctrination targeted at children. And if Disney is trying to hide it from parents, it means they know it’s wrong. This is why their profits are diving and their movies are bombing; parents no longer trust the company that was once synonymous with wholesome children’s entertainment. A lot of this has to do with context as well; Bugs Bunny used to dress as a woman, and the point was that it was so absurd that it was funny. But those images of Gonzo from the Muppets cartoon are trying to push transgender ideology on kids. And that’s not even getting into those despicable parades that also target children. But the gist of the AFL’s argument is that Disney is misleading the shareholders about what it’s actually doing and how destructive it is. Bob Iger couches his pitch for social messaging with platitudes about how successful Black Panther was, gives the occasional “we’re going to quiet the noise” soundbite, then makes Gonzo transgender and has adults tell children they may be so too.
Whether this has an impact on the Nelson Peltz proxy war is up in the air. If the world were halfway normal, it would, but crazy has been passed around like the flu for a decade or so now. And Peltz didn’t exactly help his case with his ill-advised comments from a few days ago (accurate though his sentiment may have been). If he’d kept his mouth shut, this could have been a massive blow to Bob Iger and his agenda. It may still be, but thanks to Peltz, Iger has some defense now, whether or not it makes logical sense. On the other hand, distributing this letter to the shareholders could knock some sense into enough of them to make them realize Disney needs to reverse course fast. At the very least, since this letter has been made public, maybe it will wake more people up to what Disney has been doing lately and why they need to keep a close eye on their kids, especially when they hear the “When You Wish Upon a Star” intro jingle coming from the living room.
Thanks to Doomcock for his video on the subject, which is where I learned about this story.