Robert Allen "Bob" Iger (born February 10, 1951) is an American liberal progressive Hollywood studio executive and oligarch. Iger held the position as President of Disney in 2000 and later became CEO in 2005, succeeding then-recently fired Michael Eisner, and was continuing its descent into a secular-progressive corporation. Prior to taking over Eisner's position, he had worked for ABC. There was also evidence to suggest that Bob Iger's appointment was a farce.[1]
Iger supported the Clintons, which was also cited to be part of the reason why he had ultimately allowed ABC to cut three minutes out of the special "The Path to 9/11," that blamed the Clintons for not taking care of al Qaeda, as well as why the movie was not released onto DVD, either within Disney or even sold the rights.[2]
He initially joined Donald Trump's advisory committee in the hopes of swaying Trump to support policies for the left, which ironically caused controversy among various leftists.[3] However, he eventually quit the advisory committee after Trump rejected attending the Paris Agreement.[4] He later called Trump's shutting down DACA "cruel and misguided."[5]
He also expressed some interest in running as the Democrat candidate in the 2020 Presidential Elections, and was also suspected of causing significant increases in promoting the left-wing agenda among Disney and its affiliates, in particular ESPN, regardless of whether it actually turned a profit, in order to curry favor for any left-wing voters.[6]
He eventually stepped down on February 25, 2020, and was replaced with Bob Chapek, himself former head of the Disney Parks.[7] However, due to the events of COVID, he was ultimately forced to return to his position at Disney and run it alongside Chapek.
On November 20, 2022, Disney fired Chapek, and brought Iger back as CEO, despite Iger being the very same reason and start of Disney's woke downfall and losses. Iger stated he’ll have a two year term, and is working on a potential successor.[8][9]
Controversy
A shareholder meeting with Iger had Justin Danhof, an attorney for the National Center for Public Policy Research and a Disney shareholder, citing that ABC and ESPN (both branches of Disney) were undergoing Anti-Christian and Anti-Conservative biases in their reporting, and stated they should stop. He received applause by the shareholders, something Danhof cited that he never experienced before.[10] He later brought ABC's left-wing bias up again during the 2017 shareholder's meeting, in particular the complaints about having bias during the 2016 election cycle, although Bob Iger claimed the complaints were "completely exaggerated" and that they were as fair as possible in their coverage.[11] Earlier, he also was confronted by Tom Borelli, another member of the National Center for Public Policy Research, over his preventing the release of Path to 9/11 onto DVD, which resulted in Bob Iger violating his own code of not using foul language by dropping the F-bomb to Borelli.[12]
Around 2009, Iger ended up requesting for a "Golden Coffin" (where he continues to receive payments after he dies should he die on the job), which various Stockholders were outraged at, including Cornish Hitchcock, the lawyer who crafts shareholder proposals.[13]
When the show GCB was released on ABC, a former Disney member, David Outten, wrote a letter to Iger citing that the show was disrespectful and alienating American Christians, and cited the group he and Disney are currently appealing to won't fill seats at a theater.[14]
Most infamously, he also proceeded to not only fire various American IT workers at the Disney theme parks, but also proceeded to force them to train their replacements (all of whom were outsourced workers) under the threat of their severance packages being confiscated, in a clear abuse of the H-1B visa program.[15] The fired IT workers then proceeded to enter a lawsuit with Disney and Iger for the reasons behind the firing, citing it as discrimination against American citizens.[16]
He as well as Jeffrey Katzenberg were later caught alongside at least three other CEOs in a scandal involving a deal with Chinese officials to allow their films to air in China.[17]
In addition, during the controversy involving ESPN commentator Jemele Hill's commenting that Trump was a White Supremacist among other epithets, Iger insisted that ESPN's leadership keep her on the job because she was an outraged black woman. Danhof stated that the National Center for Public Policy Research has attempted to reign him in from doing these kinds of things because of these actions harming the long-term investors, but Iger ignored them, with Danhof also accusing Iger of bigotry due to his rationale for keeping Jemele Hill.[18] In fact, once Hill was back on the job, she resumed her anti-Trump rhetoric.[19]
Ironically, he also started showing controversy from the left when he joined Donald Trump's advisory committee, although he claimed he was only part of it so he could influence policy decisions to be more favorable to the left, quoting the play "Hamilton".[20]
He later was involved in a scandal in 2018 where, during a supposed shareholder meeting, most of the CEOs were replaced by a Disney Fan Club to shower praises to him until Justin Danhof exposed the scam, causing the Disney Fan Club to allow Danhof to question Iger about his letting Jemele Hill continue to work at ESPN despite her aforementioned comments, or Joy Behar's anti-Christian slurs against Mike Pence, causing Iger to admit that Behar apologized privately to the Vice President, which eventually led to outcries that resulted in Behar giving a more public apology. As a result of this, Iger was denied a compensation package.[21] In addition, he also attempted to deny there was any bias against Trump and Conservatives by ESPN or any Disney-owned media by brushing off the question when Justin Danhof gave specific examples of such, including Jemele Hill's rant against Trump and Joy Behar's anti-Christian slurs.[22]
On May 30, 2019, Bob Iger in light of the passing of the heartbeat bill in Georgia had strongly insinuated that he will have Disney look elsewhere for filming locations in protest against its passage. This gained a lot of controversy, due to Disney being primarily aimed at children yet Iger effectively giving support to abortion, which would kill off future customers.[23] Likewise, he also claims it was unconscionable to support Georgia's heartbeat bill, yet ironically enough supported China despite it having an appalling human rights record, as well as various countries such as Croatia and Saudi Arabia which if anything had even stricter anti-abortion laws.
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20050529083326/http://www.savedisney.com/news/features/fe050905.1.asp
Roy Disney, Stanley Gold Sue The Walt Disney Company, Certain Directors For Fraud, Breach of Duty of Disclosure Regarding Board's Public Statements About Search for Eisner's Replacement As CEO
Suit Asks Court to:
•Void 2005 Election of Directors
•Compel Company to Hold Another Election for
•Directors After Full Disclosure About CEO Selection Process
•Enjoin Company and Board from Changing Eisner's or Iger's Compensation or Contracts
Burbank, CA - May 9, 2005 -- Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold today filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court against The Walt Disney Company and certain members of the Board of Directors of the Company alleging that the Board made false statements to the Company's shareholders about its CEO search in order to induce shareholders to vote for the incumbent Board at the 2005 meeting and to induce Messrs. Disney and Gold not to run an alternate slate of directors at that meeting.
In addition to The Walt Disney Company, the two former Disney Directors sued Robert A. Iger, Michael D. Eisner, Judith L. Estrin, John S. Chen, Aylwin B. Lewis, Monica C. Lozano, George J. Mitchell and Leo J. O'Donovan, S.J, for fraud and breach of the duty of disclosure in connection with the Board's public statements about the search for a replacement for outgoing CEO Michael Eisner.
In their lawsuit, Messrs. Disney and Gold are asking the Court to void the 2005 election of Disney Company directors and to compel the Company to hold another election for directors after full and fair disclosure of all material facts about the CEO selection process. Messrs. Disney and Gold are also asking the Court to enjoin the Company and the Board from changing either Eisner's or Iger's compensation or employment contracts. :
The complaint states, "In light of Disney's and Gold's successful 'Just Say No' campaign at the 2004 Annual Meeting and threat to run an alternate slate of directors at the 2005 Annual Meeting, Defendants delayed their selection of [Robert] Iger until shortly after the 2005 Annual Meeting, used Company resources to promote Iger's candidacy and did not in good faith seriously consider any other candidate." As a result of Messrs. Disney's and Gold's efforts, a total of 45.37% of the Company's stockholders withheld their votes for Mr. Eisner, 25.69% withheld their votes for Senator Mitchell, and 24.37% withheld their votes for Ms. Estrin in an unprecedented "No Confidence Vote" at the Company's 2004 Annual Meeting.
According to the complaint, despite the Board's public promises to Company shareholders that it would conduct the CEO search with 'open minds' and with no predeterminations or preconditions, in reality, the Board's CEO selection process precluded serious and effective consideration of external candidates. The complaint cites, among other things:
•reports that the Board interviewed only one external candidate, delayed notifying her of any decision and did little to dissuade her from withdrawing her candidacy;
•Michael Eisner's presence or expected presence at interviews of external candidates; and
•the Board's failure to investigate Iger's role in the Fox Family Channel acquisition, the presentation of overly optimistic projects about Fox Family to the Board and the related withholding from the Board of the CFO's plan to save the Company $400 million by writing down the value of those Fox Family assets.
Messrs. Disney and Gold's complaint states that shareholders were misled by the Board's public promises of open mindedness, saying that had "Disney and Gold known that the Company and a majority of the Board did not intend to stand by their public statements about engaging in a bona fide CEO selection process, [they] would have run an alternate slate of directors at the 2005 annual stockholders meeting."
Also revealed in the complaint is the Company's recent rejection of Messrs. Disney's and Gold's request under Delaware law for books and records documenting the Board's search for Eisner's successor. Messrs. Disney and Gold's complaint cites the Company's refusal to permit any scrutiny of the Board's decision to appoint Iger as CEO as further evidence that shareholders were misled by the Board's statements about a bona fide process. - ↑ http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kevin-mooney/2008/03/11/disney-challenged-dvd-sales-path-9-11
- ↑ https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-disney-shareholders-meeting-disney-ceo-bob-iger-defends-trump-1488997088-htmlstory.html
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2017/06/02/disney-ceo-bob-iger-quits-trump-advisory-council-paris-agreement-withdrawal/
- ↑ https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-ceo-bob-iger-calls-trumps-daca-shutdown-cruel-and-misguided-2017-9
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2017/05/05/espns-leftward-lurch-explained-disney-ceo-may-run-democrat-nomination-using-network-curry-favor-leftists/
- ↑ https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/bob-iger-to-step-down-as-disney-ceo-effective-immediately/ar-BB10nTy2?ocid=spartanntp
- ↑ https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/what-disney-fans-can-expect-with-bob-iger-s-return-as-ceo-and-bob-chapek-s-departure/ar-AA14n549
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/20/business/disney-robert-iger.html
- ↑ http://www.christianpress.com/index.php/us/476-disney-criticized-for-anti-christian-anti-conservative-bias-at-shareholder-meeting
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/03/09/disney-boss-says-no-political-bias-at-abc-news-and-espn-complaints-completely-exaggerated/
- ↑ http://www.nationalcenter.org/PR-Disney_Iger_Shareholder031009.html (archive link here)
- ↑ http://deadline.com/2009/03/disneys-iger-getting-a-golden-coffin-8745/
- ↑ http://www.christiancinema.com/catalog/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=2045
- ↑ http://blog.hreonline.com/2015/06/04/disneys-h1b-controversy/
- ↑ http://www.computerworld.com/article/3149535/it-outsourcing/disney-it-workers-in-lawsuit-claim-discrimination-against-americans.html
- ↑ https://freebeacon.com/national-security/dreamworks-nightmare/
- ↑ https://dailycaller.com/2017/10/13/bob-igers-bigotry/
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2018/03/12/disney-ceo-bob-iger-denies-espn-bashes-donald-trump-conservatives/
- ↑ https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-disney-shareholders-meeting-disney-ceo-bob-iger-defends-trump-1488997088-htmlstory.html
- ↑ https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/disneys-mickey-mouse-attempt-to-silence-critics-at-its-shareholder-meeting-backfires/
- ↑ https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2018/03/12/disney-ceo-bob-iger-denies-espn-bashes-donald-trump-conservatives/
- ↑ https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/05/31/disney-ceo-threatens-pro-life-trump-loving-scumbag-states/