Disney accused of misleading shareholders with ‘woke political agenda’
Disney has lost over $100B in market cap since February 2021
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Walt Disney Company is facing accusations that the company has misled shareholders by promoting a "woke political and social agenda" at the expense of profits.
America First Legal (AFL), a group aligned with former President Trump, sent Disney a letter Wednesday alleging that the company has engaged in unlawful discrimination and pushed political causes that have caused "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."
The group, which is headed by the former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, alleges that the company’s management has "intentionally manufactured misalignment between the Company and its core customers" over the last few years, resulting in an over $100 billion blow to the company’s market capitalization since February 2021.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (Photo by Mark Ashman/Disney Parks via Getty Images)
"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," the group said in a press release.
The release points to multiple examples of Disney’s alleged disregard for the preferences of its core customers, including shows in the Disney+ "Junior Mode" that AFL claims amplify "racial divisiveness and societal unrest."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In one specific example, AFL pointed to an episode of "Muppet Babies," where the character Gonzo is depicted cross-dressing as a female princess in a take on the Disney classic "Cinderella." The letter notes that kids watching in "Junior Mode" can view this episode, but cannot watch the actual "uncontroversial" "Cinderella" film while using the same safety settings.
An exterior view of a Disney store located in the Bayside Marketplace on March 4, 2021 in Miami. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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The letter also points to examples of Disney putting "woke ideology" at the center of other programming, including the opening moments of Marvel’s "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantiumania," when Ant-Man’s daughter accuses police officers of firing tear gas at "peaceful protesters."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The letter comes after AFL already filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in February, accusing the company of a "patently illegal" program of discrimination by favoring "underrepresented" groups in hiring.
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Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statues stand at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu City in suburban Tokyo while visitors enjoy a Disney characters parade on Nov. 13, 2001. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP via Getty Images)
"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. 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," AFL Executive Director Gene Hamilton said in the release.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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 added. "Disney’s leadership is gambling with–and losing–shareholder money and appears to be violating federal law in the process."
Disney did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.