Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, April 1st, 2022

You will be shocked to learn that much of the outrage against Disney is done in bad faith..

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Friday, April 1st, 2022. 

YOU WILL PROBABLY BE SHOCKED TO LEARN THE ANTI-DISNEY CAMPAIGN IS BEING DONE IN BAD FAITH
I have certainly been critical of the way that Disney's Bob Chapek has handled the company's stance towards Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law. But even given that, much of the conservative media’s targeting of Disney has veered between unfair and trumped up.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to make of the recent stories in the conservative media that report Karey Burke, president of Disney’s General Entertainment Content, suggested in a company-wide Zoom call that Disney should boost the number of characters that are LGBTQIA or other underrepresented minorities by a whopping 50 percent by the end of 2022. And that comment certainly sounds bad:

Karey Burke, president of Disney’s General Entertainment Content, announced on a company-wide Zoom call Monday that as “the mother of two queer children”—one transgender and one pansexual, she elaborated—she intends to drastically ramp up queer visibility within the Magic Kingdom, increasing characters in Disney productions that are LGBTQIA or other underrepresented minorities by a whopping 50 percent by the end of 2022, according to the New York Post via meeting footage obtained by journalist Christopher F. Rufo and posted to Twitter.

But here's the thing. That isn't what she said at all in the video. Not that the fact has stopped anyone from continuing to beat Disney like a pinata over the badly-reported comments.

The video clip in question was originally posted on Twitter by Rufo, who may best known for comments like this one:

So given that, journalists probably should have been a bit more skeptical when he posted the video excerpt with this explanation:

As it turns out, what she actually says is much different. In the video, she explains that "we don't have enough [LGBT] leads," despite having "many, many, many LGBTQIA characters." But there's no mention at all of the 50% number, so why did Rufo claim that there was?

I suspect part of the answer is that he knew a lot of outlets would run with the story without bothering to really look into it. And in today's "aggregation is as good as fact-checking" journalism environment, he also knew that entirely too many outlets wouldn't be able to resist such a clickable headline. And if it wasn't true, they could shrug off complaints with a simple "hey, just linked to that video in good faith."

But there is also something more substantive going on here and it should be on everyone's radar in the entertainment industry. 

This targeting of Disney isn't a random, grassroots movement or even a direct side effect of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law. It's an effort to weaponize casting and diversity in a way that will make every media company skittish in the future. By labeling Disney as "woke," by hinting that the company is sexualizing children and even mentioning pedophilia in Hollywood and "grooming," conservatives are attempting to put Disney on the defensive. They hope the pressure will convince the company to be even less willing to make public statements in favorite of LGBTQ-friendly issues. They want to roll back the clock.

And if they can successfully cower Disney, they know that other, less powerful media outlets will fall in line. All conservatives have to do is mention "woke" and they have already won 75% of the public relations battle. More LGBTQ characters in a show or movie? Woke. Positive portrayals of Gay or Lesbian lifestyles? Woke. Adding gender and racial diversity to casting? Woke.

There is a strain of conservatism that believes Hollywood is almost exclusively liberal and that it has used its productions to convince young audiences to embrace liberal beliefs. These same conservatives believe that one remedy for that is to economically punish companies every time they release a project that could in an way be considered "woke." It's an effort to insert fear into the production process.

No matter your political persuasion, I suspect most people would prefer that studios not feel as if they have to watch every decision and think "will this cause us problems down the road?" 

And one last thought about Disney's problems. Bob Iger's recent interview in which he suggested that companies should "do the right thing" no matter the economic costs is maddening, given how much Disney under Iger's leadership kissed up to China in an effort to remain in that very lucrative market. Iger didn't have any qualms choosing the bottom line over morality when he was in charge. In fact, he suggested that his moral pragmatism was one of his executive strengths. But now that someone else in charge, he has suddenly grown a spine. Or perhaps, he is just passive-aggressively using the topic to make things difficult for his successor at the company.

THIS ISN'T A 'TOLDJA' MOMENT...BUT
Puck's Matthew Belloni is suggesting in his newsletter today that Alex Wagner is the frontrunner to eventually replace Rachel Maddow on MSNBC's primetime schedule:

Looks like Alex Wagner is now the internal frontrunner to score the Rachel Maddow 9 p.m. slot on MSNBC, per a top source. Caveat: It’s far from final. Wagner used to have a noontime show on the network, and she returned in February, right around the time that Maddow announced she’s scaling back. Wagner is great on Showtime’s The Circus, but those are big (ratings) shoes to fill. 

Not to say that I told you so, but I was suggesting in my newsletter back in February that she would be the best fit for the job:

MSNBC recently rehired Alex Wagner, who has a wealth of journalism experience as well as experience anchoring at MSNBC. She filled in for Maddow last week and is filling in for Chris Hayes this week. She has been spectacular and last week's run showed that she is capable of adapting her own style with Maddow's staff to create the promise of something special. I get the impression MSNBC President Rashida Jones want to make a statement with Maddow's eventual replacement and that Wagner isn't the massive sea change she is looking for. 

But what Wagner can do is a fine job in primetime and she's capable of developing her own style in much the same way Maddow did. Moving Nicole Wallace into Maddow's slot feels like a holding action. Hiring Psaki for the job is a betrayal of Maddow's audience. The last thing they want is an avowed insider who has her own passive-aggressive issues with journalists.

It's also worth mentioning that I made this original suggestion following a Dylan Byers piece in Puck that suggested the White House spokesperson Jen Psaki could be the next Rachel Maddow.

CHURN IS BACK....SORT OF
A new study from Park Associates concludes that about 32 million American streaming subscribers are "service hoppers." In other words, people who subscribe and then cancel a few months later and/or jump between streaming services. Since I don't have the $4,000 to spend on the full Data-Based Decision Making For Video Services report, I'll just have to go by the brief synopsis provided to reporters. But while that 32 million number is getting a lot of headlines, it's a somewhat useless datapoint, since knowing the churn rate across the streaming industry isn't all that helpful. The churn challenges for Netflix are very different than the ones for Peacock. So providing an overall industry number doesn't provide much context.

I did, however, find this chart very interesting:

It's just another reminder that no matter how many times analysts complain about the content spend by streaming services, the reality is that constantly acquiring new and compelling content - whether it’s licensed or original - is still the best way to grow the subscriber base and cut down on the subscriber churn rate.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* This is a great look behind-the-scenes of the Food Network series Tournament Of Champions. Reality Blurred's Andy Dehnart spoke with executive producer Brian Lando of Lando Entertainment, who offered up lots of interesting details about the show's production.

* The new Bravo series The Real Housewives Of Dubai premieres on Wednesday, June 1st.

WHAT'S NEW FOR FRIDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (Netflix)
Battle Freestyle (Netflix)
Captain Nova (Netflix)
Celeb Five: Behind The Curtain (Netflix)
Forever Out Of My League (Netflix)
Slow Horses Series Premiere (Apple TV+)
The Bubble Series Premiere (Netflix)
The Last Bus (Netflix)
The Outlaws Series Premiere (Prime Video)
The Thaw (HBO Max)
Tomorrow (Netflix)
Trivia Quest (Netflix)

Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.

SEE YOU MONDAY! 

If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.