The Disney vs. DeSantis feud has seemingly overtaken headlines for the last few weeks. Everywhere we turn, news has been flooding our inboxes and feeds about each escalation and update on the happenings. While most Disney Fanatics are certainly tuned in to what’s going on down in Florida between the Walt Disney Company-owned Walt Disney World Resort and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, it seems like the news isn’t as prevalent as one might think.
Disney vs. DeSantis
The Walt Disney Company has had a long back and forth with Governor Ron DeSantis. Tracking back to the beginning of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill (officially named the Parental Rights in Education Act), the feud began after then Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke out against the bill. The fight has escalated to the point of the Walt Disney Company filing a suit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board (formerly the Reedy Creek Improvement District board) filing a countersuit.
Recently, during the earnings call on May 10, 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger even hit back at the Florida Governor, asking, “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more money in taxes, or not?”
How Many Americans Actually Care About the Disney vs. DeSantis Feud?
However, while it might seem like the issue and its discussions are majorly widespread, per a Yahoo News-YouGov poll, it appears this is not actually the case. The poll reported,
The survey of 1,584 U.S. adults, which was conducted from May 5 to 8, finds that fewer consider “wokeness” (41%) a “big problem” in America today than any other option provided, including inflation (74%), breaching the debt ceiling (58%) and border security (58%).
Racism (50%) also outranks wokeness, as do new abortion restrictions (46%) and book banning in schools (47%).
In addition to this, only 34% of Americans have “heard a lot” about the battle.
The article also clarified, “the ones who have heard a lot are much more likely to be viewers of MSNBC (62%) than of Fox News (29%) or CNN (31%).” Finally, of the people polled, “only 28% of Americans take DeSantis’s side on the questions about Disney’s initial criticism and his subsequent response.”
