For those who've followed the Walt Disney Company's botched attempts to sink Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican state legislators' agenda, it's been a long string of missteps, flawed strategies, and outright lies by the House of Mouse. On Wednesday, Disney (again) lost a legal battle to DeSantis.
A settlement reached between the parties and announced on Wednesday puts to rest — in a favorable way for Florida and DeSantis — Disney's last-ditch attempt to foil the successful takeover and elimination of the Disney-controlled district that allowed the company significant autonomy in and around its Walt Disney World resort. In short, Disney admitted its efforts to thwart DeSantis were "null," "void," and "unenforceable."
According to Florida's Voice:
Disney is set to drop its lawsuit against the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and the district will drop its own lawsuit against Disney. Claims and counterclaims from both parties would be dismissed as well. Disney is also set to drop a public records effort part of the legal battle.
The legal battles were over last-minute, far-reaching restrictive covenants and agreements, which gave Disney broad power and developmental rights over its former self-governing improvement district of Reedy Creek, which was dissolved and replaced last year.
At the time the Reedy Creek board attempted to sabotage Florida's takeover, virtually every mainstream media outlet lauded Disney's efforts and said the now-voided agreements amounted to a loss for DeSantis and insisted the governor had been out-maneuvered. This was of course not true at the time — and is now finally put to rest.
Bryan Griffin, communication director for DeSantis, celebrated the outcome in a statement to Florida's Voice — one that was foreseeable by anyone not blinded by anti-conservative bias — noting Disney admitted in the settlement that its "last-minute development agreement are null, void, and unenforceable."
"No corporation should be its own government," Griffin emphasized. "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."
Just a sample of the hyperbolic headlines are below (and more here), surely none of which will be corrected or updated by the biased media that gleefully yet incorrectly proclaimed DeSantis had lost to Disney.
BREAKING: Disney drops lawsuits. Another W for Florida. Of course the media would rather lie about it or ignore it than admit their hysterical proclamations were wrong. https://t.co/KDbe1CwOGQ
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) March 27, 2024
As Disney loses to DeSantis yet again, it’s a good reminder that if there’s one thing you can count on with absolute certainty, it’s that the media will get everything wrong, never admit it, then demand censorship for everyone else https://t.co/KbAUIXW6iB
— Ian Miller (@ianmSC) March 27, 2024
BIG WIN.
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) March 27, 2024
I’d love to see an update @shannonjpower. pic.twitter.com/EImGkAxbMo
Disney brought all of this mess and multiple defeats on itself. If they had worked on making movies that didn't turn into box office duds instead of launching false smears against DeSantis and his legislative agenda, they'd be a lot better off. The company wouldn't have had to weather C-suite chaos, plummeting public opinion, or end things with DeSantis-delivered egg all over its face.