5/15/2023 0 Comments Josh spiegel mousterpiece![]() Choosing who takes over for you when you leave is an important decision, and one Iger failed to make correctly. As in, five years.) Bob Iger kept talking about leaving, and kept struggling to decide who should succeed him, and then he chose a guy who has navigated the last two years quite poorly. (Why did it feel like it took years for Iger to make this decision? Because it was multiple years. Well, lookee here, it’s Bob Iger! Yes, really, he chose Bob Chapek, and only after what felt like years of Iger deciding who would succeed him. Their creation is political, because their creators are, because life is political. Black Panther is art and so is Modern Family and so is Love, Victor. Not all art is great art, but it’s still art. And whether you like it or not, Disney makes art. In short, the argument was that Disney should not get political, a privileged and foolish comment if ever there was one. But it’s bullshit, because a) some of those shows and films speak only to those who already believe in its messages as opposed to someone who may be on the other side of issues of race, gender, and sexuality and b) lobbying efforts alone have a hell of a lot more of an effect on public society than any film or TV show. The argument, I gather, is that by green-lighting, bankrolling, and releasing films and TV shows like those mentioned above, Disney is endorsing their messages to enough of an extent that you can extrapolate a set of beliefs from them. ![]() I have equally little doubt that Bob Chapek genuinely believes the message of that quote, which is truly distressing beyond any earnings-call comments. But for all the times when you wonder if a CEO means what they say…well, this is not one of those times. It was all of those things, and I have little doubt that Disney’s communications team probably was not thrilled about its outcome. I cannot believe - still - that this language was written, vetted, reviewed, and approved. Now, putting it lightly, this is bullshit. I firmly believe that our ability to tell such stories-and have them received with open eyes, ears, and hearts-would be diminished if our company were to become a political football in any debate. These and all of our diverse stories are our corporate statements-and they are more powerful than any tweet or lobbying effort. Consider this passage, building off Chapek’s acknowledgement that many Cast Members were dismayed at a lack of a corporate statement from Disney speaking out against the inflammatory, anti-LGBTQ+ bill in question:Įncanto, Black Panther, Pose, Reservation Dogs, Coco, Soul, Modern Family, Shang-Chi, Summer of Soul, Love, Victor. He’s not super-left-wing.)Īnd yet, when I read this letter back in March via The Hollywood Reporter, I could not stop thinking about how wildly tone-deaf its message was. (People talk about Bob Iger’s presidential aspirations, and let us remind ourselves that he has defined himself as moderate in the past. But I get that companies like Disney can only afford to be so left-leaning. I wish more people were as liberal, and I know some folks are far more so than I am. (If you have followed me on Twitter long enough, you probably know this already.) So on a personal level, I found this bill odious, and I know many others did too. When it comes to the latter point above, Chapek’s gravest mistake - and unlike a number of mistakes that occurred in the last couple years, it was very much self-inflicted as opposed to inherited - is his response to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida. Bob Chapek seemed unable to conjure up excitement for the company he ran, as if he cared about what he was talking about. From the outside in, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company has many jobs, and Bob Chapek appeared to be quite bad at two of the most important jobs: being an effective corporate communicator, and inspiring dedication and respect among your Cast Members.īob Chapek was stiff. And listen, this is not going to be a spirited defense of Bob Chapek. But I think some folks may be lifting Iger up in part because of how much they disliked Chapek and his choices. In the interim, Iger coming back as CEO is good news.
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