The Disney Grooming Syndicate surrendered to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) Wednesday, announcing the withdrawal of its lawsuits in the Reedy Creek dispute.
Back in 2022, after Disney decided it would fight for the “right” of public school teachers to groom elementary school kids by opposing a law DeSantis signed prohibiting grooming — as Breitbart News reported at the time — the governor “signed legislation into law … intended to dissolve Disney’s special tax and governing jurisdiction in Florida.”
You see, before it became a left-wing super PAC for groomers, Disney enjoyed all kinds of special treatment:
The legislation DeSantis signed will eliminate the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which has existed for 55 years as a vehicle for Disney to govern itself within the state. Florida established Disney’s special tax district in 1967 after Walt Disney asked the Florida Legislature for more control over the development of Walt Disney World.
After DeSantis revoked these privileges, Disney immediately tried to pull all kinds of underhanded shenanigans to protect that special status, including having the Reedy Creek Board pass a 30-year exemption for Disney from government oversight. DeSantis then appointed his own people to the board and overturned that.
Then, the entitled groomers at Disney sued Florida in federal court:
Disney’s suit alleges DeSantis has waged a “relentless campaign to weaponize government power” against the company amid the ongoing fight over the [anti-grooming] law. It also claims the Republican governor “orchestrated at every step” a campaign to punish Disney in ways that threaten the company’s business.
DeSantis countersued, and what happened next was glorious: Disney’s reputation fell into where it belongs — the toilet. Disney’s movies began flopping at something close to a 100 percent rate, and now Disney CEO Bob Iger has a shareholder revolt on his hands specifically caused by Iger’s annihilation of the Disney brand with his leftist politics.
As I write this, Disney is in more reputational trouble than at any time in its history, so Iger probably figured it was time to fly the white flag of surrender so he can better concentrate on saving his job.
“As usual, the media were wrong,” DeSantis Communications Director Bryan Griffin said of a media that crowed and boasted about how passing that 30-year exemption before DeSantis could replace the board was some sort of master chess move on Iger’s part.
Griffin added:
We are glad that Disney has dropped its lawsuits against the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and conceded that their last-minute development agreements are null, void, and unenforceable. No corporation should be its own government. Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.
The far-left AP is trying to spin Disney’s total capitulation as a “settlement.” Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey debunks that:
Which take is correct? The fact that one side plans to hold a press conference at 12:15 ET offers a big clue, and that presser will feature DeSantis, not Iger. This is only a “settlement” in the sense that the CFTOD agreed not to keep suing Disney over their fraudulent machinations if Disney ended its attempt to bully Florida out of its sovereignty in federal and state courts.
So much for the mainstream media declaration that Disney defeated DeSantis, eh?
The good guys win again.
Disney is evil.
No decent parent leaves their child alone with anything involving Disney.
