Disney has to contend with a new administration in Washington, D.C.
The political winds are shifting against the company.
And a Trump official had one warning for Disney’s CEO that left him trembling in fear.
Trump’s FCC chair warns Disney that trust in the media has disappeared
The media absolutely embarrassed itself trying to carry Vice President Kamala Harris to victory in the election.
Media bias was as bad as it has ever been during coverage of the election.
President-elect Donald Trump was attacked relentlessly while Kamala received overwhelmingly positive coverage.
One of the worst culprits in the legacy media was ABC News.
ABC News settled a defamation case against Trump for $15 million after host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly lied about him being found “liable for rape” during an episode of This Week.
The lone Presidential debate hosted by ABC News was a fiasco after moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis stepped in with fraudulent “fact checks” against Trump throughout the event while Kamala did not receive a single check despite numerous mistruths.
ABC News did its part to try and get Kamala elected.
The broadcast networks operate with a license that is approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Trump’s nominee for FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, fired off a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger warning the company he would hold broadcast news accountable when he takes office.
Disney is the parent company of ABC News.
ABC News’ actions come back to haunt Disney
Carr pointed out in a letter to Iger that the media is no longer trusted by the public.
“Dear Mr. Iger, Americans no longer trust the national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly,” Carr wrote.
He noted that ABC News’ settlement with Trump as an example of this.
“ABC’s own conduct has certainly contributed to this erosion in public trust,” Carr continued. “For instance, ABC News recently agreed to pay $15 million to President Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum and an additional $1 million in attorney fees to settle a defamation case.”
Carr argued that local news was more trusted than what was coming from national outlets.
“The fact that a massive trust divide has emerged between local news outlets and national programmers like ABC only increases the importance of retransmission consent revenues remaining available for local broadcast TV stations to invest in their local news operations and content that serves their communities,” Carr stated.
Most of the local ABC affiliates are opened by independent companies who pay to distribute ABC’s content.
Carr expressed concern that Disney was treating its local affiliates unfairly in contract negotiations.
“The approach that ABC is apparently taking in these negotiations concerns me,” Carr noted. “My understanding is that ABC is attempting to extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations under the threat of terminating long-held affiliations, which could result in blackouts and other harms to local consumers of broadcast news and content.”
ABC News tried to tip the scales in the election for Kamala.
Disney could pay a price for the network behaving like a Democrat political outfit instead of a news organization.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.