According to Disney CEO Robert Iger, yes, Disney World is down in attendance, but no, the reason has nothing to do with the previous CEO taking the company down a "woke" path:
Disney CEO @RobertIger says Disney World setting a ten year low in attendance on July 4th isn’t because of his political fight with @GovRonDeSantis. Do you believe him? Are you consuming @Disney content less because of woke politics? If so, discuss below: pic.twitter.com/lz2Eh8M9gM
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 13, 2023
Dutifully the media is playing along with that spin.
Here's one example from CBS News:
Disney World's crowds are getting smaller, signaling that the high entry costs to the theme park as well as competition from other destinations may be taking a toll on attendance. https://t.co/8GOTkDJgvi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 14, 2023
A lot of people are guessing that the Disney decline is instead because of their disastrous foray into "woke" BS, and I'd be one of those people:
Sure. It has nothing to do with poor decisions on woke issues that run counter to mainstream values! Got it.
— Tony Monetti 🇺🇸 (@MonettiforMO) July 14, 2023
— Razgriz (@DamianNB) July 14, 2023
Or maybe it's conservative families being alienated by their woke ideology?
— 🇯🇲 Jamrocker 🇺🇸 (@Jamrocker4ever) July 14, 2023
CBS News does mention that topic, but claims in the report it's not a reason Disney's hurting:
The entertainment giant may be battling a few issues, including parents' increasing wariness of spending more than $100 per day for a ticket to Disney World. Intense competition from rival destinations, especially as pandemic restrictions have eased across the globe, may also be playing a role, Passy noted.
"Florida was one of the first parts of the country to benefit from one of those post-COVID booms," he said. "They started getting people much earlier than other destinations, and now they are having to compete with cruise lines and with folks who want to travel to Europe."
[...]
But it's difficult to quantify whether the culture war battles between Disney and DeSantis are scaring away visitors, Passy noted.
"I would say that there are probably some folks that are turned off for various reasons, but I would hesitate to suggest that is the main driver of any trends we are seeing at Disney World right now," he said.
They'll just never admit that Disney deciding to more than dabble in "woke" has been a total backfire.
Funny, I assumed it was more the "go woke, go broke" issue https://t.co/I67SxVBHVL
— Ima Libby Tarian (@ImaLibbyTarian) July 14, 2023
It is.
Also, just for bonus "journalism" points the CBS News piece used the term "the law critics call 'Don't Say Gay.'"
You've no doubt noticed that the MSM only uses the "what critics call" approach when the "critics" are on the Left. For example, they've never reported the "Inflation Reduction Act" as the "spending bill critics call 'inflation-worsening wasteful spending.'"
Have a good weekend everybody!
