The Walt Disney Company is facing backlash after critics say it has misled its shareholders by prioritizing a “woke political and social agenda” over profits, thus violating its fiduciary duty.
As Fox News reports, a letter was sent to Disney on Wednesday by America First Legal (AFL) accusing the company of unlawful discrimination, as well as forcing political messages that have resulted in “damage to Disney’s brand, properties, and commercial reputation by management’s manufactured misalignment between its woke political and social agenda and the vast majority of the Company’s customers.”
AFL, which is run by Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, further claims that Disney’s upper levels of management “intentionally manufactured misalignment between the Company and its core customers” in recent years, which has led to the company’s market capitalization losing over $100 billion since February of 2021.
“Disney has displayed an inexplicable disregard for its customers and shareholders, forcing radical gender-expansive, anti-White, and anti-police content on families while providing warnings about harmful content on uncontroversial content,” said AFL in a press release, which went on to cite several examples of left-wing rhetoric and messages in Disney’s various entertainment products, from TV shows to movies.
In February, AFL filed a civil rights complaint against Disney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that the company implemented a “patently illegal” hiring program that overwhelmingly favored “underrepresented” groups.
“Disney is an iconic American brand–the product of decades of family-focused content infused with American pride that hundreds of millions of Americans have enjoyed for decades,” said AFL Executive Director Gene Hamilton in a statement.
“But today, Disney’s leadership appears to have abandoned its roots–and most notably, its shareholders–in hopes of placating an insatiable activist movement that aims to radically reshape the Disney brand into something that is completely inconsistent with its history.”
“If Disney were a privately held corporation, it could make whatever foolish decisions it desired if those decisions complied with the law. But it’s not,” Hamilton continued.
“Disney’s leadership is gambling with–and losing–shareholder money and appears to be violating federal law in the process.”
Disney is already facing a major lawsuit from actress and former MMA fighter Gina Carano, who was fired from her role on “The Mandalorian,” a TV series in the Star Wars universe, run by Disney’s LucasFilm division.
Carano was fired for a social media post in which she compared the discrimination and dehumanization against American conservatives today to the treatment of Jews in the early days of Nazi Germany. Carano’s lawsuit is supported by X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and its owner Elon Musk.
