Disney is a cultural touchstone – and that’s why it’s a magnet for controversy

By Natasha Chen, CNN

Los Angeles, CA (CNN) — The nearly 102-year-old Walt Disney Company is no stranger to being catapulted into America’s culture wars. But the wrangling over “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” this month marked a new milestone in the entertainment behemoth’s frequent foray into culture-war flashpoints.

Just since 2020, Disney has dealt with political controversies including its response to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, its theme park re-openings located in two states with polar opposite COVID safety protocols, its firing of Gina Carano from “The Mandalorian” over some of her social media posts and its re-theming of Splash Mountain in the wake of a nationwide racial justice reckoning after the killing of George Floyd.

But no matter what the company does – or doesn’t do – seemingly half of the country gets upset.

The continued controversies underscore just how big Disney has gotten, from the movies that helped define American animation to the theme parks that helped defined American childhoods, from Star Wars to late-night talk shows. And with an increasingly polarized country, that means those broad markers of American life will almost inevitably be seen very differently across the nation.

Disney has dealt with public scrutiny before, including animators going on strike in 1941 , the Southern Baptist boycott in the late 1990s or allowing Ellen DeGeneres to come out on her ABC show. But recent events may elicit more vocal public reaction now that Disney owns brands far beyond movies and theme parks, as well as how quickly information travels on social media.

“This pickle is not going away,” said Allyson Stewart-Allen, CEO of International Marketing Partners. “If anything, this pickle is going to get bigger.”

Stewart-Allen, who works with companies worldwide on their branding, does not consult for Disney.

Why this moment stands out

But even in this shifting cultural landscape, Disney’s recent actions stand out. Last week, ABC, which is owned by Disney, suspended Kimmel’s late-night show over comments he made about the suspected killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Amid a backlash from the right, including pressure from the Trump administration, ABC took the show off the air. (Kimmel returned on Tuesday night, although about 20% of affiliates continued to preempt his show.) Some critics perceived the Disney-owned ABC to be reacting to government threats.

In the eyes of theme park content creator Victoria Wade, Disney’s actions seem like the sequel to a movie she’s seen before: “There’s been a history of making decisions and a lot of fear mongering and then backtracking on decisions due to public outcry.”

Wade said she was proud of the Disney company for stating strong inclusion values in 2020 and announcing a new theme to the old Splash Mountain ride, which now features Disney’s first Black princess.

But after the Kimmel controversy, Wade canceled her Disney+ subscription. In comparing the company’s moves today to what it did five years ago, she notices a change, in no small part because of transitioning leadership at Disney and a different administration in the White House.

“I feel like just a lot of power dynamics are shifting right now, and we’re trying to navigate and figure out what exactly is the move to make,” Wade said.

One major difference in 2025 is the federal government’s role in company actions.

“I can’t think of a time that Disney has created content or altered content due to a federal request or pressure since the 1940s,” said Benji Breitbart, editor of unofficial Disney fan site Laughing Place and a former Disney Parks employee.

Breitbart said that during World War II, Disney created some propaganda films for the federal government. During that time, the US State Department also sent Walt Disney and animators on a trip to South America to build and strengthen relationships there as a bulwark against Nazi encroachment on the Americas.

After that trip, “they ended up making ‘Saludos Amigos’ first and then ‘Three Caballeros,’” Breitbart said, referencing the animated musical films set in Latin America.

Today’s political environment is vastly different, and Disney is not alone weighing if – and how – to stand up to the government.

Paramount Global, for example, was harshly criticized for settling a lawsuit by President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” news report.

But Disney, “unlike any other entertainment company, (is) a cultural touchstone, which causes them to be a magnet for passioned opinion,” Breitbart said. “And I honestly believe if CBS was in the exact same situation (with a television show), this would not have flared up nearly as much. It is just that people feel a much stronger connection to Disney than nearly any other company in the world.”

As a former Disney employee, he said he saw people of all backgrounds interacting at the theme parks.

“Disney can truly be a uniting force if people that didn’t have a vested interest in dividing the world didn’t view Disney as a way to amplify their goals,” he said.

Disney did not respond to a request for comment.

Why Disney touches a nerve

Lou Mongello started his podcast about Disney, WDW Radio, more than 20 years ago. Though he keeps politics out of his content, he’s had followers reach out to him to say they were unsubscribing from his show and blog – because they were unsubscribing from all things Disney.

“Sometimes we turn to Disney for answers, because we trust Disney, and we want Disney to reflect the values that we individually hold near and dear to our hearts. And that’s challenging, right? Because no single company can perfectly reflect everybody’s views,” Mongello said.

Anytime a company plants a flag, he says, it’s done at the risk of alienating perhaps half of the public.

“It’s unfortunate and sad, because Disney has always been that place that I’ve always felt was the escape from all that, not the place where we go to debate it all,” he said.

In fact, many fans believe Walt Disney kept newspapers and television sets out of his parks so that guests could be fully immersed in a fantastical world, without reality or politics encroaching.

But in 2025, those same theme parks are filled with guests holding smart phones, with real-world headlines just a tap away.

How companies should handle the pressure

Stewart-Allen believes Disney’s actions with Kimmel were impulsive.

“Any company that takes a decision in haste that is counter to its own commercial interests is going to always surprise me,” Stewart-Allen said.

In today’s political environment, she advises company leaders to take a public stand. But she also believes that Disney’s behavior in the face of political pressure does not seem particularly consistent.

When Disney was at odds with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policies in the state over a bill critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the company canceled a $1 billion project to relocate thousands of employees there.

But when Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr issued a veiled threat over “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, the show was taken off the air.

“You need to be consistent in your behavior,” Stewart-Allen said. “So if you’re telling all of these stakeholder groups, ‘These are our values, this is what we stand for,’ and yet you behave in a way that’s at odds with those values, these groups are going to ask questions.”

Of course, easier said than done. CEOs must weigh the risks of standing up to the government versus the risks of a public outcry.

Stewart-Allen said that calculation needs to factor in the speed with which the public is assessing brand behaviors now, in a way that wasn’t happening before social media.

Now the actions are “really public, and they’re public quickly,” she said. “Once you’ve lost trust amongst employees or customers or clients, it’s really expensive to win it back.”

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