{"id":1507345,"date":"2022-06-08T08:19:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1507345"},"modified":"2022-06-08T08:19:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:19:29","slug":"disney-relies-on-media-echo-chamber-and-cries-of-racism-to-boost-obi-wan-kenobi-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/disney-relies-on-media-echo-chamber-and-cries-of-racism-to-boost-obi-wan-kenobi-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Relies On Media Echo Chamber And Cries Of Racism To Boost \u2018Obi-Wan Kenobi\u2019 Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdisney-relies-on-media-echo-chamber-and-cries-of-racism-to-boost-obi-wan-kenobi-series%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1507345&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/JTF_FF_000556.0.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>This should have been Disney\u2019s time in the sun, basking in the rays from happy fans. The House of Mouse just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3Yh_6_zItPU\">released<\/a> its biggest Star Wars project in years, \u201cObi-Wan Kenobi,\u201d a show featuring its most popular Star Wars characters, only to have it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/tv\/obi_wan_kenobi\">land<\/a> with a thud. <\/p>\n<p>Most companies would analyze what went wrong and try to fix it, but not Disney. Instead of trying to understand fans\u2019 distaste, Disney took the nuclear option and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/starwars\/status\/1531519653951836161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">blasted<\/a> their viewers as racists.<\/p>\n<h2>Disney Implies Its Own Fans Are Racists<\/h2>\n<p>Obi-Wan Kenobi is the latest expensive and disappointing entry in Disney\u2019s cavalcade of streaming content. The story follows Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi as he suffers a midlife crisis while trying to save a tween-age Princess Leia from the Empire. At best, it\u2019s OK. At worst, it\u2019s painful. <\/p>\n<p>The selling point of a show like this is to bring back beloved characters from the admired Star Wars prequels. You would think traditional positive marketing and welcoming back those lifelong fans would be the smart play, but that\u2019s not what Disney\u2019s marketing department had in mind. <\/p>\n<p>Just three days before the May 27 premiere, The Independent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/tv\/features\/obi-wan-kenobi-moses-ingram-interview-b2088811.html\">released<\/a> an interview with actress Moses Ingram, who plays the tone-deaf antagonist Reva, telling interviewers Disney warned her to be ready for racist attacks from fans. She also said Director Deborah Chow went to lengths to put \u201cproper systems in place\u201d to protect the crew from feared fan racism. From the beginning to Disney, they were making clear that the real enemies weren\u2019t the inquisitors but the fans.<\/p>\n<p>Then just as the first reviews were coming in, Disney <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/starwars\/status\/1531519653951836161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">issued<\/a> viral posts on Instagram and Twitter. \u201cWe are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva\u2019s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist,\u201d Disney wrote on their official social media.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019d think that would be enough, but Disney isn\u2019t anything if persistent in advertising. The Mouse then grabbed Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, Ewen McGregor, in what looks like a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/starwars\/status\/1531804726165401600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1531804726165401600%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fuproxx.com%2Ftv%2Fewan-mcgregor-moses-ingram-obi-wan-kenobi-racist-messages%2F\">hostage video<\/a>, saying: \u201cif you\u2019re sending her bullying messages, you\u2019re no Star Wars fan in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Star Wars Fans Are the Problem <\/h2>\n<p>At no point during this or later parts of this debacle, did credible evidence surface of a racist attack on Ingram, neither from Disney nor the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/star-wars-fandom-racism\/\">media<\/a>. Nevertheless, that didn\u2019t stop them from going on the hunt for their favorite targets: <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/columnists\/peterpischke\/2022\/05\/17\/mainstream-media-blames-violent-video-games-for-the-buffalo-shooting-science-says-otherwise-n2607346\">the nerds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As if the Mouse had waved his magic wand, every mainstream and lefty outlet joined forces to attack the fandom. At first, the attacks either were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/2022\/06\/01\/star-wars-moses-ingram-racism-ewan-mcgregor\/\">unskeptical<\/a> reports of the Ingram story, attacks using clips and quotes from celebrities like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/daily-shows-trevor-noah-tears-into-racist-star-wars-fans-for-attacking-moses-ingram\">Trevor Noah<\/a>, or claims of review bombing; meaning fake reviews put up by bots or trolls. However, this pretext quickly devolved as journos felt they had been given permission to bully. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A headline from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/06\/02\/1102509719\/star-wars-obi-wan-kenobi-moses-ingram-racist-messages-disney\">NPR<\/a> reads, \u201cRacist \u2018Star Wars fans aren\u2019t new. Why doesn\u2019t Disney do more to protect its actors?\u201d The <a href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/feature\/briefing\/1014109\/star-wars-fandom-racism\">Week<\/a> went with the trite \u201cThe Star Wars fandom\u2019s racism problem.\u201d Other outlets, usually more left-wing, like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/mojo-wire\/2022\/06\/star-wars-nerds-black-actress-moses-ingram\/\">Mother Jones<\/a>, skipped the on-ramp entirely. \u201cWhy Can\u2019t the Star Wars Nerds Imagine a World With Black People?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone from <a href=\"https:\/\/baltimore.cbslocal.com\/2022\/05\/31\/star-wars-obi-wan-kenobi-racist-backlash-baltimore-native-moses-ingram\/\">local news outlets<\/a> to national papers like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/2022\/jun\/01\/disney-and-ewan-mcgregor-condemn-horrendous-racism-sent-to-obi-wan-kenobi-star-moses-ingram\">The Guardian<\/a>, to popular magazines like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/star-wars-fandom-racism\/\">Wired<\/a>, to blogspam like <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/star-wars-toxic-fans-problem\/\">Screen Rant<\/a>, to more hoity-toity fare like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90757079\/disney-star-wars-racism-fans-lucasfilm\">Fast Company<\/a>, and everything else in between got in on the orgy of media violence. Leading to my personal favorite, from <a href=\"https:\/\/melmagazine.com\/en-us\/story\/moses-ingram-obi-wan-kenobi-racist-taunts\">Mel Magazine<\/a>\u201cThere\u2019s No Bigger Loser Than A Racist \u2018Star Wars\u2019 Fan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response to this media bombardment, the <a href=\"https:\/\/babylonbee.com\/news\/i-wish-the-writers-had-made-this-black-character-more-interesting-says-star-wars-fan-who-is-obviously-a-racist\">Babylon Bee<\/a> pithily retorted: \u201c\u2019I Wish They Had Made This Black Character More Interesting,\u2019 Says Star Wars Fan Who Is A Racist.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Crying Wolf to Divert Fair Criticism<\/h2>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time the media piled on Star Wars fans. After \u201cThe Last Jedi\u201d debuted, a popular hate article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarysue.com\/rian-johnson-destroys-last-jedi-haters\/\">topic<\/a> circulated, created by Rian Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/star-wars-manbabies\">calling<\/a> fans manbabies and blaming fans for bullying Kelly Marie Tran off social media. On Twitter, you find Last Jedi haters next to GamerGate for being partially responsible for everything from politics to mass shootings. What\u2019s different now is the scale of the attack, and that it\u2019s Disney leading the charge.<\/p>\n<p>Consider that these attacks began before \u201cObi-Wan Kenobi\u201d was even released. Disney knew it might have an <a href=\"https:\/\/lrmonline.com\/news\/the-obi-wan-kenobi-series-will-likely-have-a-huge-budget-lrm-rumor\/\">expensive<\/a> turd on its hands, and it needed some way to justify the rumored $25 million per episode budget. So, what do you do in this year of our Lord 2022? You go with woke anti-marketing, enlisting the media to save your show and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/culture\/2018\/2\/23\/17028826\/black-panther-wakanda-culture-marvel\">protect<\/a> it from any potential criticism both from reviewers and fans alike.<\/p>\n<p>More frustrating is that this strategy might actually work, at least in the short term. Obi-Wan is getting <a href=\"https:\/\/comicyears.com\/tv-shows\/obi-wan-kenobi-season-2-confirmed\/\">talks<\/a> of a second season, and while the audience score for the show on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/tv\/obi_wan_kenobi\">Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> is middling around 59 percent, the review scores remain a high 87 percent. Disney knows if the media puts out 500 articles about a show, then the project is staying on top of the Google search results for a good long time.<\/p>\n<p>But is Disney eating its own tail? Are they expecting new fans to appear after digesting their programs and forgetting about their newest streaming bore-fest? Can you tell me what happened in \u201cCaptain Falcon: Winter Soldier\u201d? Because I know I can\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>These shows are lackluster, boring, generic, and forgettable. As seen with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard\u2019s death blow to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/18\/opinion\/amber-heard-metoo.html\">Me Too<\/a>, people are sick of false prudish wokeness. People may defend woke Disney, but few like it. It isn\u2019t Rey Skywalker that fans want to be, but Luke.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Peter Pischke is a journalist and health and disability reporter. He can usually be found manning the Happy Warrior Substack and Podcast, providing commentary on news and nerdery of the day. You can find him on Twitter: @happywarriorp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This should have been Disney\u2019s time in the sun, basking in the rays from happy fans. The House of Mouse just released its biggest Star Wars project in years, \u201cObi-Wan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":643,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1507345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/643"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1507345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1507345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1507345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1507345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1507345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}