Billionaire Elon Musk was dragged after he claimed an "anonymous source" sent him a secret chart outlining Disney's inclusion standards only for critics to point out that The Hollywood Reporter had shared the chart in an article in 2020 after Disney made it public.
The presented chart illustrates the mandated diversity and inclusion criteria across different sectors of The Walt Disney Company.
Musk—fresh off an announcement that he is providing financial support for ex-Mandalorian actor Gina Carano's lawsuit against Disney alleging wrongful termination due to her right-wing opinions on social media—claimed the chart represents "mandatory, institutionalized racism and sexism."
You can see Musk's post below.
You can see the chart below.
Disney
What people quickly caught on to was that these standards have been publicly accessible on Disney's website since 2020. Additionally, the Company Content Representation statistics, showcasing the distribution of employees by gender and race (White or Person of Color) across scripted and film, as well as news and sports sectors, are also available in the charts.
Kim Masters, an editor at The Hollywood Reporter, noted Musk was stirring the pot, and quipped that "the secret source read The Hollywood Reporter in 2020, when we published this."
Musk was swiftly taken to task.
Musk's attacks against Disney's inclusion standards constitute the latest developments amid his ongoing row with Disney CEO Bob Iger after Disney pulled their ads from X, formerly Twitter.
Musk was criticized after he issued a profane response to advertisers that withdrew their advertisements from his social media platform amid a controversy over his posts, which were criticized as antisemitic.
The controversy brewed after Musk agreed with Jewish conservative Charles Weber, who, addressing Israel's campaign against Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, said that "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them."
Musk responded that Weber was speaking "the actual truth" when he said he doesn't care that "western Jewish populations [are] coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don't exactly like them too much."
Musk called out Iger in his rant during the New York Times DealBook Summit, admitting an advertising boycott could tank the social media platform—though he insisted such a development would not be his fault and said Iger and other advertisers who've distanced themselves from X should "go f**k" themselves.
Disney is among several firms, including IBM, Apple, and Lionsgate, that have withdrawn ads from X due to Musk's controversial tweet and reports from Media Matters highlighting their ads alongside offensive content. Musk has taken legal action against Media Matters over the report.
