Bob Iger Responds To Ron DeSantis’s Campaign Trail Attacks: “The Notion That Disney Is In Any Way Sexualizing Children … Is Preposterous”
13.07.2023 - 13:19
/ deadline.com
As Ron DeSantis has made attacks on The Walt Disney Co. a feature of his presidential campaign, CEO Bob Iger responded to one of the Florida governor’s accusations made on the campaign trail: That the company was in favor of the “sexualization of our children.”
“We are a pre-eminent entertainer in the world, and we are proud of our track record there. The notion that Disney is in any way sexualizing our children quite frankly is preposterous and inaccurate,” Iger told CNBC’s David Faber in an interview from Sun Valley, ID.
DeSantis has focused his attacks on Disney’s opposition to a parental rights bill — dubbed “don’t say gay” by detractors — that has led to a stand off and a federal court lawsuit. While Iger told Faber that “the last thing that I want for the company is for the company to be drawn in to any culture wars,” DeSantis is likely to continue his attacks, which burnish his image as he runs to the right of Republican front runner Donald Trump.
In the CNBC interview, Faber pressed Iger on an incident that happened in June, when there was a Neo-Nazi demonstration outside of Walt Disney World.
“It was horrifying, quite frankly, and it’s concerning to me that anyone would encourage a level of intolerance or even hate that frankly could even become dangerous action. It could be turned into some dangerous act of some sort,” Iger said. “So it is concerning to me.”
Disney sued DeSantis in April, claiming that the governor’s move to strip the company of control over a special district that covers its Florida theme parks was an act of retaliation for its opposition to the “don’t say gay” bill.
More to come.
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