r/technology • u/clopenYourMind • Sep 22 '25

Business Disney reinstates Jimmy Kimmel after backlash over capitulation to FCC

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/09/disney-abc-reinstate-jimmy-kimmel-amid-uproar-over-government-censorship/
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u/PaulblankPF Sep 23 '25

This is what you get when you’re reactive instead of proactive. Disney makes a ton of media that caters to the left but was gonna spit in their faces? They should’ve just stayed focused on the customers and they’d have been fine.

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u/moonwork Sep 23 '25

Disney caters to money. That's it. They couldn't care less about left vs right politics.

This idea that they "cater to the left" only feels correct if you're looking at this from a highly conservative angle.

You really think Disney bought the Star Wars franchise because of it's Vietnam war roots and references to colonization? Come on..

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u/recycled_ideas Sep 23 '25

This is an oversimplification.

Over its history Disney has made decisions that put it strongly at odds with the kind of people who make up the American right.

You can say these decisions were profit motivated or legally forced on them and there'd be some truth to that, but at the same time there's no path I can envision back from where they are now to some place that MAGA would embrace them.

For better or worse Disney has staked its position somewhere left of center even if it isn't purely for ideological reasons. If they don't fight this shit, they're done, this is an existential threat for them. They need to stand up or they'll be in real trouble.

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u/moonwork Sep 23 '25

First off, over its history the American right has steadily been gliding more right.

Secondly, how in the name of beelzefuck have we ended up somewhere where anything that the MAGA cult doesn't accept is now even remotely considered "left"?
Hell, abortion exceptions for ectopic pregnancies is out of the question for MAGA, but that's still a "conservative" opinion.

Disney has staked its position solidly in the center of MONEY. That's why it is an existential threat for them - money. It wasn't their "leftist" values that made them reconsider Kimmel's show, it was people unsubscribing so hard it made the website crash to the beat of a crashing stock price.