The desire by both establishment media and former President Donald Trump to destroy Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) leads them to a lockstep defense of Disney, to the point that they are fabricating losses by DeSantis to make him look bad.
The latest example of this comes from Disney canceling a planned corporate campus that was going to be placed in Lake Nona, Florida. Media outlets predictably jumped on this, claiming that DeSantis cost his state 2,000 jobs over his feud with Disney, which stems from the corporation arguing that first graders should be taught about gender transitions and sex.
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Trump also jumped in, doing victory laps on Disney’s behalf because Trump would willingly surrender the culture war just for some favorable press for “owning” DeSantis. This goes along with Team Trump calling for mercy for Anheuser-Busch for mocking women with a transgender “influencer” in advertising and Trump gushing over Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), the most prominent culture warrior in the Democratic Party.
The problem with this victory parade is that it is based on a fiction. Disney didn’t spike the project in order to spite DeSantis. In fact, Disney said last year that the project being delayed to 2026 had nothing to do with DeSantis. New (returning) CEO Bob Iger hated the proposal, and so did the California workers who were going to be relocated to Florida as part of the project. Earlier this year, Disney announced it would be laying off 7,000 people to cut $5.5 billion in costs.
The truth is this project died the day Chapek was fired. Iger hated it.
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) May 18, 2023
It was a terrible idea and had already been delayed until 2026.
Those 2,000 jobs were CA transplants, most of whom did not want to move to FL because creatives like LA. This article called it in November. https://t.co/r59mMcSQOe pic.twitter.com/TvNywQ5Zic
As I've been saying: One of the country's top Disney reporters (yes, this is a beat) just confirmed Ron DeSantis had little to do w/ the Orlando project cancelation.
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) May 19, 2023
(1) Too costly
(2) Relocation issues
(3) Iger hated it
If they lie about this, what else are they lying about? pic.twitter.com/c2arCBgocZ
This was not Disney trying to score points on DeSantis. This was Disney, a company that is going through a rough financial patch, killing a project that had already been delayed and was unpopular with the new CEO and the workers that would be affected. If anything, it is another sign of Disney’s current weakness as it throws itself into more political fights.
Establishment media don’t care about that, though, as evidenced by The View’s Alyssa Farah Griffin saying that, even though the media narrative was wrong, “perception” is all that mattered. Griffin represents a perfect cross-section of all the players here: She is a Disney employee through ABC, and she was a former Trump employee before beginning her anti-conservative grift in liberal media.
I believe @GiancarloSopo is correct here. But the political problem is public perception: the Governor picked a fight & the state lost jobs & revenue. https://t.co/ATw2JASUgP
— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) May 19, 2023
In total, you have establishment media, Trump and MAGA world, and Disney on the same team, with DeSantis as their enemy. Trump and the media then have to hype up Disney, which has been losing its political fights in Florida, in order to make DeSantis look bad. They back the billion-dollar corporation, even when it means fabricating narratives, because they are both scared of DeSantis. Now ask yourself why.