April 26, 2022
"Because of its extreme political stance, Disney, wildly popular in its heyday, is now in trouble with a big chunk of the American people"
Trouble In Mouse-Land? ‘Woke’ Disney Takes Huge Hit In Trust: I&I/TIPP Poll
As part of our April I&I/TIPP poll, we asked 1,305 adults across America the following question: “How closely are you following the recent story about the opposition of some Disney employees to the new Florida law forbidding classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade?” ~~~~~~~ We followed up with a second question to those following the story: “As a result of the recent stories, how much trust would you place in Disney’s programming for your children, assuming you have any?” ~~~~~~~
Democrats overwhelmingly trust Disney’s programming — by a 77% to 19% margin. For Republicans, it’s nearly the reverse, only 23% now trust Disney programming, compared with 70% who don’t. Most telling, however, is the fact that independents no longer trust the Mouse: 42% say they trust Disney’s designs on their children, while 52% say they don’t. ~~~~~~~ Even Disney’s own shareholders are speaking up. “Here’s a suggestion for Disney CEO Bob Chapek: Get back to business, that is, excellence in storytelling, and stop wasting shareholders’ money on political crusades that have nothing to do with Disney’s business,” DisneyBizJournal.com editor Ray Keating told Fox News Digital. ~~~~~~~
But of perhaps greater concern for the company’s future is the more direct political threat from outside the company. Congressional Republicans have talked about letting Disney's long-standing copyright on its No 1 icon, Mickey Mouse, lapse when it comes up for renewal, thus depriving the company of one of its most reliable, long-standing revenue streams.
DeSantis, meanwhile, has discussed possibly repealing the half-century-old legislation which gives Disney extraordinary political control over the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Never heard of it? It contains all of Disney World and much of the surrounding territory and gives the Disney execs near-total control over their domain. Without that untrammeled control, Disney’s extensive property holdings and the buildings on them become less valuable.
Finally, Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz is pushing to repeal loopholes in his state’s tax laws that let Disney avoid literally hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes there each year. “I envision a Sunshine State where all corporations play fair and, consequentially, hard-working Floridians pay less in taxes,” Gaetz said, saying he would call on both Democrats and Republicans in Florida’s legislature to “to act now and end the Disney tax loophole.”
So while Disney does have a majority of people saying they trust the company’s programming for kids, that trust is in fact quite narrow. Because of its extreme political stance, Disney, wildly popular in its heyday, is now in trouble with a big chunk of the American people, as the I&I/TIPP data indicate.