Iger defends ABC, ESPN and his work on Trump panel
Disney CEO Robert Iger tackled questions big and small during the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Iger not only had to defend his role on President Trump’s economic advisory council and Disney’s ABC and ESPN from charges of bias, but also had to name his favorite Disney princess and favorite upcoming ride at the company’s planned Star Wars theme parks at Disneyland and Disney World.
Twice during the Wednesday meeting, Iger was asked to resign from Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum, formed in December 2016. When told that his participation served to condone the president’s policies, Iger said his involvement was no endorsement.
“I made a decision I thought in the best interests of our company, and of our industry, to have an opportunity to express specific point of views directly to the president of the United States,” he said.
He compared his participation to the song The Room Where It
Happens from the musical Hamilton. “I think there is an opportunity when you are in the room where it happens to express opinions that I believe would be in the best interests of our company and its shareholders,” Iger said.
Iger said he does not intend to step down from the group.
When told that ABC News and ESPN had a “pervasive bias” against the Trump administration and conservative views by Justin Danhof of the right-leaning National Center for Policy Research, Iger said, “I’m going to disagree with everything you said.”
Any issue of anti-conservatism on ESPN is exaggerated, he said. “Watch ESPN; you are not going to see political bias,” Iger said.
When a young girl asked him his favorite princess, he said he didn’t have one. But he noted that a character in the film Inside Out had a girl character with the same name she had (“Riley”).
To a boy who asked about what new Star Wars ride he looked forward to most, the CEO said he was most excited about the Millennium Falcon ride.