Disney CEO Bob Iger has said he wants to move away from politics, but the conservative legal warriors at the Alliance Defending Freedom would like the entertainment giant to put it in writing.
The alliance said it met Tuesday with Disney officials over its past participation in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an initiative created in 2019 to promote “brand safety” that wound up demonetizing right-of-center news outlets and platforms.
The project was discontinued last year after Congress raised concerns about its antitrust exposure, but conservatives fear that companies like Disney will continue to pursue GARM’s agenda by using its advertising dollars to squelch disfavored political and religious speech.
Michael Ross, ADF legal counsel, said that Tuesday’s meeting did little to assuage those worries.
“Disney has a long way to go in restoring the trust of the American people,” said Mr. Ross in a statement. “Today’s meeting was another reminder of just how far one of the nation’s most beloved brands has fallen.”
At the meeting, he said, “Disney representatives refused to comment on the company’s involvement in vast censorship — even when we presented them with clear evidence that their partnership with GARM resulted in the censorship of religious and political viewpoints.”
The ADF, which along with Bowyer Research and Patron Partners represents Disney shareholders, said the company also declined to issue a statement on the issue.
“We asked Disney point blank if they would publicly make a statement affirming their commitment on viewpoint diversity,” Mr. Ross said. “Disney said they did not think it was in their best interest to do so.”
The Washington Times has reached out to Disney for comment.
A legal powerhouse with 15 Supreme Court wins under its belt, the ADF is best known for defending clients like Colorado baker Jack Phillips against governmental crackdowns on free speech and religious freedom.
Two years ago, the alliance began challenging corporations on issues such as the debanking of conservative entities and spread of diversity, equity and inclusion mandates.
“We’ve helped shareholders file about 10 resolutions this shareholder season related specifically to GARM,” said Jeremy Tedesco, ADF senior vice president of corporate engagement. “But we’ve also filed over 50 resolutions on issues like deplatforming [and] DEI in vendor contracts.”
He said that “we’re essentially setting the conservative agenda for shareholders.”
Disney agreed to the meeting in exchange for the withdrawal of a proposed shareholder resolution requiring the company to report back on “how it oversees risks related to discrimination against ad buyers and sellers based on their political or religious status or views.”
The World Federation of Advertisers dissolved the GARM initiative in August, saying the effort to help advertisers avoid “harmful and illegal content” had been misconstrued.
The decision came a month after the House Judiciary Committee found that “GARM likely violated federal antitrust laws.”
One example cited was how GARM urged its members, including corporate titans like Coca-Cola and Unilever, to “stop all paid advertisement” on Twitter after it was purchased in 2022 by billionaire Elon Musk.
“Colluding to suppress voices and views disfavored by the leading marketers at the world’s largest companies and advertising agencies is core to GARM’s founding principles,” said the committee report.
GARM may be gone, but the fear is that companies will continue to pursue its goals by using politics as a factor in their advertising spending.
“I think it [GARM] went away because of scrutiny. I don’t think it went away because they don’t want to do it,” said Mr. Tedesco. “There are a lot of policies at the companies that are essentially the kinds of policies GARM was trying to enforce through collaboration and collusion.”
He added that “there’s already some reporting around a new GARM entity forming. So this is not going away.”
Under Mr. Iger, who retook the top job in 2022, Disney has sought to return the focus to entertainment after criticism over its LGBTQ activism.
For example, the company said last month that it removed a transgender storyline from its upcoming Pixar animated series “Win or Lose,” about a middle school softball team.
“When it comes to animated content for a younger audience, we recognize that many parents would prefer to discuss certain subjects with their children on their own terms and timeline,” said a Disney spokesperson.
Mr. Ross said that at the Tuesday meeting “Disney stated that they were primarily concerned with their main business, which is telling excellent stories.
“We encouraged them that, as customers and shareholders, we shared those goals as well. Alliance Defending Freedom, as well as our partners at Bowyer Research and Patron Partners, will continue to advocate for needed transparency for Disney’s customers and shareholders through continued meetings.”
Ideally, Disney would enact policies and procedures that prevent it from joining any GARM spin-offs “whose goal is to censor online in the future,” said Mr. Tedesco.
“These are really the beginning of conversations,” he said. “It often takes successive years of engaging with corporations to get them to move in the right direction. But we’re OK with that.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.