The mainstream media once again has egg all over its face following news that Disney has settled its fight with Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, home to the Walt Disney World Resort.
As BizPac Review reported, the House of Mouse caved, conceding that all of its legal maneuvering is null and void. After three failed Hail Mary’s to retain control of the historic district, Disney at last dropped its lawsuits and handed the reins to Florida’s board of the newly-renamed Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD).
Gov. DeSantis wins – Disney drops lawsuit, concedes last-minute power grab null and void https://t.co/Zld7AiYBqT via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) March 27, 2024
The DeSantis victory gives past media coverage of the Disney battle “a whole new look,” according to Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick.
Kornick details the many times mainstream media outlets “predicted that DeSantis would be crushed.”
It began in 2022, after the governor declared he would end Disney’s longstanding self-governing status in the district.
“In 2022, several people at MSNBC called DeSantis’ move ‘authoritarian’ and mocked the governor for attempting to go after the billion-dollar company,” Kornick writes.
She continues:
“Later in the program, the governor of Florida’s growing authoritarian rule there and its retaliatory move against one of the biggest corporations in America — all for Disney’s crime of speaking out against discrimination and hatred,” MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said.
Wallace spoke with frequent MSNBC guest Jason Johnson, who quipped that there were “so many Disney songs” he wanted to sing “in preparation” for the interview with Wallace. “Let It Go” and “We Don’t Talk about DeSantis” were two of the Disney reprises that Johnson had in mind.
NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd and MSNBC host and former 2020 Biden campaign aide Symone Sanders-Townsend also weighed in on the controversy, with Todd beginning a panel discussion by asserting that Republicans had “better be careful going after Disney.”
“Oh, my money’s on the Disney lobbyists, honey. My money is on the Disney lobbyists,” Sanders said.
Joy Behar, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” which is owned by Disney, stated that DeSantis is “taking on the mouse, and the mouse is bigger than Ron DeSantis.”
In 2023, MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough told agreeing contributor Donny Deutsch, “you can’t beat Disney.”
“You’ve also talked in the past, and I’ve agreed with this, that DeSantis, once the stage starts to get bigger, is going to start to wilt a little bit,” Deutsch said. “You can just see he’s got no answers. He’s got no punches. He’s fighting a fight he can’t win, and this, to me, is a precursor of him on a bigger national stage. And he’s just stupid. It’s a stupid, stupid play.”
And the list of Kornick’s examples goes on:
Throughout 2023, headlines said DeSantis was being outmaneuvered by Disney and would eventually lose his case.
“How Disney just beat Ron DeSantis,” a Vox headline read. A Salon piece was titled “’Out-negotiated by Mickey Mouse’: DeSantis’ board reveals Disney quietly stripped them of power.” Newsweek reported, “Ron DeSantis suffers huge blow in his battle with Disney.”
“Disney is proving to be the foe that will not die,” Vox wrote.
DeSantis communications director Bryan Griffin isn’t surprised by the media’s dismal track record.
“As you know, hours before CFTOD took authority, Disney entered into a last-minute Development Agreement with the former Reedy Creek board to grant itself additional powers and perpetual property rights.,” he told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The media was quick to celebrate this action as an indisputable win. … And, as usual, the media were wrong.”
Ron DeSantis advises Disney to ‘drop the lawsuit’ against Florida, or prepare to lose https://t.co/2DuzklHCza via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) August 15, 2023
Both DeSantis, via Griffin, and Disney took a more optimistic approach to the settlement.
In a statement to FOX Business, Walt Disney World President Jeff Vahle said the company is glad the lawsuits are over.
“We are pleased to put an end to all litigation pending in state court in Florida between Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District,” he said. “This agreement opens a new chapter of constructive engagement with the new leadership of the district and serves the interests of all parties by enabling significant continued investment and the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs and economic opportunity in the State.”
Griffin said the DeSantis team is also “glad” a settlement had been reached.
“We are glad that Disney has dropped its lawsuits against the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and conceded that their last-minute development agreements are null, void, and unenforceable,” Griffin said in his statement to Fox News Digital. “No corporation should be its own government. Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”
“DeSantis still faces a federal lawsuit from Disney that alleges the governor unfairly retaliated against the company for political reasons,” Kornick reports. “However, a federal judge dismissed the case in January, and Disney has agreed to hold off on an appeal until after a new development agreement with the district.”
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Melissa Fine
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://americanwirenews.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.