Musk Escalates Attack on Disney

If Bob Iger decides to update his 2019 memoir, “Ride of a Lifetime,” with a chapter on his return to Disney a year ago, he’ll have plenty of juicy material. The executive once widely admired for his success in running the entertainment giant is now being assailed on all sides. Today, we had Elon Musk, still irritated that Disney joined other advertisers in pulling money off X last month after some problematic Musk tweets, launching a series of attacks on Disney and Iger. These ranged from puerile—misspelling Iger’s name more than once—to nonsensical. Iger, he said, should be fired immediately. “Walt Disney is turning in his grave over what Bob has done to his company,” Musk wrote. Who knew Musk, who was born several years after Disney died, had such insight into the founder’s thinking!

Perhaps Musk thinks his tweets will add to the pressure campaign that activist investor Nelson Peltz is mounting against Iger. Peltz signaled last week that he will create a proxy campaign to win seats on Disney’s board. The tweets will certainly win Musk credit with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been pursuing his own bizarre campaign against Disney over past slights dating back to the era of Bob Chapek, Iger’s predecessor. It’s all enough to make you feel sympathy for Iger. Sure, he bears responsibility for what’s gone wrong at Disney, particularly the overpriced acquisition of Fox, which burdened the company with a heavy debt load. But it has to be said that Iger acted earlier than his counterparts at other big TV companies to prepare Disney for the streaming age. On balance, his track record is still a good one.