{"id":1757949,"date":"2022-12-01T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T11:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1757949"},"modified":"2022-12-01T09:18:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T14:18:11","slug":"disney-ceo-bob-iger-sorry-for-battle-against-florida-calls-on-employees-to-respect-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/disney-ceo-bob-iger-sorry-for-battle-against-florida-calls-on-employees-to-respect-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney CEO Bob Iger \u201cSorry\u201d for Battle Against Florida, Calls on Employees to \u201cRespect\u201d Audience"},"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-ceo-bob-iger-sorry-for-battle-against-florida-calls-on-employees-to-respect-audience%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=1757949&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--><p>Bob Iger, who recently returned to Walt Disney Co. as chief executive, said he feels \u201csorry\u201d to see the entertainment giant getting dragged into a battle with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-florida\">Florida<\/a> lawmakers over a ban on sex and gender discussions in early elementary classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida law, in response to parents\u2019 complaints that children as young as five are being taught about homosexuality, transgenderism, and other matters related to sex and gender, prohibits public school teachers from discussing those topics with students in kindergarten through third grade.<\/p>\n<p>Disney didn\u2019t immediately join other major corporations in condemning what progressive critics described as \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t Say Gay\u2019 bill,\u201d which became law in March. However, after a group of vocal activist employees criticized the company for not publicly taking a position, both Iger and his successor, Bob Chapek, spoke out in opposition of the measure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, it wasn\u2019t politics. It was what is right and what is wrong, and that just seemed wrong. It seemed potentially harmful to kids,\u201d Iger said during an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/03\/31\/media\/bob-iger-dont-say-gay\">interview with CNN<\/a>\u00a0on Mar. 31, adding he believed it\u2019s a responsibility for a company\u2019s CEO to \u201cweigh in on issues, even if voicing an opinion on those issues potentially puts some of your business in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eight months later, Iger appears to have regretted for the company\u2019s involvement in the fight with Florida.<\/p>\n<h2>The Balance Between Talking and Listening<\/h2>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realchrisrufo\/status\/1597683598496526338\">a series of video clips<\/a> obtained and shared by independent journalist Christopher Rufo, Iger spoke at a town hall meeting and took questions from employees. When asked about his stance on the Florida law, Iger replied that while the company still pushes the pro-LGBT \u201cinclusion\u201d message, it must strike a \u201cdelicate balance\u201d between talking and listening to the audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you tell stories, there\u2019s a delicate balance,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re talking to an audience, but it\u2019s also important to listen to an audience. It\u2019s important to have respect for the people you are serving, that you are trying to reach and not have disdain from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another question concerned Florida government\u2019s move to strip Disney of its self-governance status, a privilege the company has enjoyed since the time of Walt Disney. Losing such privilege means that Disney may no longer control its own zoning, infrastructure, and policing within its special tax district in Orlando.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to get up to speed on that completely. Obviously, I followed the news. That development occurred after I left the company. I was sorry to see us dragged into that battle,\u201d Iger replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no idea what the ramifications are in terms of the business itself. What I can say is the state of Florida has been important to us for a long time, and we have been very important to the state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iger served as Disney\u2019s CEO for 15 years, from 2005 to 2020, before he stepped down and was succeeded by Bob Chapek, who oversaw the company during the COVID-19 pandemic that triggered worldwide shutdowns of theme parks, resorts, movie theaters, and live sports events. Chapek\u2019s 11-month tenure is also marked by a deteriorated relationship with Florida government, although the state allowed Walt Disney World to reopen as early as July 2020, while California\u2019s Disneyland stayed closed because of lockdown policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thank Bob Chapek for his service to Disney over his long career, including navigating the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic,\u201d Disney said in a Nov. 20 message announcing the leadership change. \u201cThe board has concluded that as Disney embarks on an increasingly complex period of industry transformation, Bob Iger is uniquely situated to lead the company through this pivotal period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iger will remain in the CEO post for the next two years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-gq-pan\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_GQ_PAN.jpg\" alt=\"Bill Pan\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Bill Pan is a reporter for The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Iger, who recently returned to Walt Disney Co. as chief executive, said he feels \u201csorry\u201d to see the entertainment giant getting dragged into a battle with Florida lawmakers over<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1697519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1757949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757949","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1697519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}