Iger’s choice to pull Kimmel off air was not a cowardly surrender to bullying by Trump or any kind of misguided, preemptive appeasement, contrary to what misguided scolds on the left are alleging. Sadly, misguided critics such as Kara Swisher are even lampooning Iger as a “quisling,” making an equivalence between the revered CEO of Disney and one of the despicable enablers of Hitler during World War II. And it’s similarly wrong to equate this with Shari Redstone’s cowardly concessions at Paramount.
Rather, this is merely one more reflection of how Iger has long sought to position Disney as a family-friendly, classic Americana brand with appeal across all sides while eschewing blatantly divisive programming.
That ethos has long guided Iger’s programming and content decisions, it’s really nothing to do with Trump. In fact, over a decade ago, when Sony was embroiled in controversy over a film depicting the fictional assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Iger confided in me that he would have never “greenlighted” such inflammatory and offensive content, promoting murder as humor. Hewould never put Disney in such a position.