Disney's CEO made a critical misjudgment in his response to Florida's so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bill. What he does next will be key.
Welcome to the March 15, 2022, edition of the Wide Shot, a newsletter about the business of entertainment. If this was forwarded to you,over Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, I wrote about how the Walt Disney Co. chief executive blundered in not anticipating the wrath of employees unafraid to take their leadership to task.
Disney employees’ Slack activity, some of which was viewed by The Times, shows that while many staff members were heartened by Chapek’s apology , there was still plenty of convincing left to do. Employees talked about the need to remain skeptical and “keep up the pressure.” Disney, like many corporations, spreads its political dollars among Republicans and Democrats in places where it operates. So do companies like Universal Studios owner Comcast Corp. and WarnerMedia parent AT&T, which also donated to lawmakers who sponsored the Florida bill, according to state records.
This episode did nothing to fix that problem. But Chapek’s longevity in the CEO job depends primarily on two things: subscriber growth for Disney’s streaming businesses and the company’s share price. How he deals with a changing workplace culture is an important but separate issue.— who helped draw attention to Chapek’s reticence when he tweeted that the Florida bill “will put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy.
It’s an uneasy dynamic that family-friendly Disney has dealt with for decades in order to cater to as many people as possible. Disney parks prohibited same-sex dancing until 1985,Early toe-dips into LGBTQ tolerance, including Michael Eisner’s defense of “Gay Day” celebrations at the parks and the coming out of ABC sitcom star Ellen DeGeneres, helped make it a target of the right.
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