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Credit: Gage Skidmore, Flickr; Disney/ABCWith the current government shutdown and finger-pointing on both sides of the aisle, there are few things currently happening in the country that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. However, the two sides may have found a common foe that is uniting them. It’s not enough to pass a budget and get the government running again, but it’s a start.
According to an analysis from the investment bank Jefferies, Democrats and Republicans now have a negative view of The Walt Disney Company and its handling of the Jimmy Kimmel situation. Jefferies used the weekly survey from Morning Consult to analyze the sentiment around Disney and found that it is the lowest sentiment Democrats had toward Disney in the last two years, and the lowest for Republicans since March.
Before Disney removed Kimmel from ABC, both Democrats and Republicans had a favorable view of Disney, with Disney’s favorable rating among Democrats in the low 40s and among Republicans in the low 30s. After Kimmel was taken off the air, Disney’s favorability dropped into the single digits among Democrats and negative territory among Republicans.
Democrats saw Kimmel’s removal as an assault on free speech, while Republicans felt that Kimmel’s return after a three-day suspension was an affront to Charlie Kirk’s memory.
Kimmel’s return has yet to buoy Disney’s favorability rating with Democrats, while it remains low with Republicans. Even with Kimmel’s return, the damage is not done for Disney.
The Kimmel Saga
Kimmel’s issues started over two weeks ago, when Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr told a podcast that broadcasters should “stop airing Kimmel’s show,” after his remarks about Kirk. Carr made a not-so-veiled threat to broadcasters, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Moments after Carr made his remarks, Nexstar, the largest station group owner in the country, announced that it was pulling Kimmel from its ABC-affiliated networks. According to Rolling Stone, executives at Disney, ABC, and its affiliated stations gathered for a meeting after Nexstar’s decision, where many of the executives in attendance did not believe that Kimmel had said anything wrong.
Despite that, Disney caved to the pressure from Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting, the largest owner of ABC affiliates in the country, to pull Kimmel from the air. Sinclair said that it will not return Kimmel to its stations until “formal discussions are held with ABC regarding the network’s commitment to professionalism and accountability,” and until Kimmel makes a direct apology to the Kirk Family, and for the network makes a significant donation to the family and Turning Point U.S.A.
However, after less than a week off the air, Disney, facing massive protests and cancellations, restored Kimmel, but he stayed off the air on Sinclair and Nexstar stations. That is, until last Friday, when he was restored to both groups’ stations without any concessions from Disney or Kimmel.
At least Democrats and Republicans are united now by their common foe. However, it’s terrible news for The Walt Disney Company.
Has your opinion of The Walt Disney Company changed in the wake of its handling of the Jimmy Kimmel situation? Let us know in the comments.