Denigrating Disney

The Magic Kingdom is under assault.

Following the ABC News presidential debate, in which moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis repeatedly fact-checked Donald Trump in real-time, parent company Disney has found itself in the crosshairs of MAGA Media.

“The biggest loser of the night?” Fox News host Sean Hannity rhetorically asked immediately after the political showdown concluded. “ABC News and Disney. Bob Iger's network. It was a disgrace.”

"ABC DISNEY TRIES TO TAKEOUT THE DONALD," blared a Wednesday banner headline on Breitbart.

Talk-show host Megyn Kelly questioned whether Disney boss Dana Walden, who has a years-long friendship with Kamala Harris, played a role supposedly rigging the debate against Trump. Hugh Hewitt, another conservative talk-show host, also wondered if Disney's business interests impacted the line of questioning at the contest.

Meanwhile, Trump himself appeared on "Fox & Friends" and openly called on the government to take action against ABC News, which he said "took a big hit" for how it conducted the debate.

"They're a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it," Trump said. "They ought to take away their license for the way they did that."

Neither spokespeople for ABC News nor Disney responded to requests on Wednesday for comment.

But the millions of Americans who live inside the right-wing media information sphere were yet again inundated with rhetoric villainizing the Iger-led company, which has in recent years been thrust into the culture wars and become something of a boogeyman to conservatives.

Most notably, Disney spent years ensnared in a battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill. That fight led to messy litigation and Disney being sucked into a war of words with DeSantis — a feud that Iger eventually put to bed earlier this year.

Now, the anger conservatives have expressed toward ABC News for daring to fact-check Trump on issues of major importance during the presidential debate has threatened to revive the animus against the entertainment conglomerate. That's a problem for Disney, which bends over backwards to maintain a pristine image and portray itself as a family-friendly company for everyone.

The attacks on Disney, however, were predictable. Hannity, Trump's top media mouthpiece, spent days telegraphing as much by using his Fox News platform to openly deliver threats directly to Iger.

"Bob Iger, what kind of reputation do you want to leave behind?" Hannity asked on one of his shows in the lead-up to the debate. "Will your network — are you going to be fair? Are you really going to show journalism? Are you going to be natural? Or will the reputation of ABC News, under the banner of Disney, live up to their reputation or forever be tarnished with extreme left wing media bias? I would assume, Bob Iger, that you want conservatives to patronize your theme parks and Disney products."

MAGA Media's attacks on Disney reflect a larger trend in American politics. When newsrooms confront Trump with hard-hitting coverage, both the president and his powerful media allies swarm the outlet's ownership with an intense volley of attacks, making life for them as uncomfortable as possible. In the past, Trump has run the playbook with NBC News/MSNBC, CNN, and The Washington Post.

Newsrooms will, of course, deny that the tactic has any material impact on their reporting. And to an extent that is true. But, given the impact Trump's attacks can alone have on a company's brand image, it would also be wrong to dismiss the attacks as having absolutely zero impact on how the news makes its way to audiences.

Trump, better than most, knows precisely which buttons to push to trigger certain behavior from power brokers — particularly those who occupy the media corridor. He knows that perception matters and that he can taint an outlet's reputation simply by alleging bias. And he knows that most people, sadly, default to taking the easier course and bending to power, not standing up to it.

In other words, Trump runs the same play over and over again because it inches coverage toward his direction. By making an example out of ABC News and Disney, both he and his allies make it that much more difficult for the next set of moderators — should there be another debate — to aggressively challenge his lies.

That’s not to say it makes it impossible. But the moderators and the network's brass are likely to think twice about how they might go about doing it. And that is the point.