Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, said it would be “difficult” to continue business relationships in Georgia following the passing of the state’s newest abortion laws. Iger’s remarks put him in lockstep with the abortion lobby led by Planned Parenthood, the Hollywood left, and political activists who’ve endorsed everything from sex strikes to boycotts in protest of the new law.
“I don’t see how it’s practical for us to continue to shoot there,” said Bob Iger, if Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act takes effect.
Reuters invited Iger’s comments on his company’s business dealings in Georgia, specifically asking, “The abortion bill in Georgia, how do you feel about that, and is Disney going to keep producing there?”
Iger replied: “I think if it becomes law, it’ll be very difficult to produce there. I rather doubt we will. … Many people who work for us will not want to work there, and we’ll have to heed there wishes in that regard.
“Right now, we’re watching it very carefully. I guess there’s some speculation it could be enacted sometime after the first of year. I think it’s also likely it’ll be challenged in the courts, and that could delay it,” Iger said. “We’re being careful and cautious about it. If it becomes law, I don’t see how t’s practical for us to continue to shoot there.”
Georgia’s new Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Iger’s comments come amid Disney’s push to bring its family-oriented content into the ever-expanding universe of streaming services.
Under Iger’s stewardship of Disney, ESPN’s ratings have plummeted. In 2018, he openly contemplated if ESPN’s focus should be sports or politics, concluding that the network — whose namesake acronym stands for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network — had veered slightly too far to the latter.
“There’s been a big debate about whether ESPN should be focused more on what happens on the field of sport than what happens in terms of where sports is societally or politically,” said Bob Iger in 2018. “And Jimmy felt that the pendulum may have swung a little bit too far away from the field. And I happen to believe he was right.”
Following Roseanne Barr’s 2018 tweet casting Valerie Jarrett as a crossover between the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes, Iger personally called Jarrett to apologize on behalf of ABC.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
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