In light of recent events, it seemed timely to examine the role entertainment plays in the current conversation around abortion. This newsletter contains two parts examining where money is committed.
Disney’s Corporate Matching Question
The fallout from the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade continues to reverberate across the entertainment industry with the Walt Disney Company — again — running afoul of at least some of its employees’ beliefs about their rights.
Like most major media-conglomerates, Disney offers select employees a generous corporate matching gift program. For every dollar donated to charity, Disney will match the donation (from $25 up to $25,000) but only to approved charities that meet the company’s standards (an internal memo outlines the criteria in 14 separate bullet points). That’s where things get interesting. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision — and the company’s affirmation that it would pay for abortion-related travel for its employees —Disney’s internal Slack channels were abuzz after several employees discovered that Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit practically synonymous with providing women with reproductive health care and basic medical and social services was not approved for Disney’s matching gift program. (The organization receives a “platinum” rating from Guide Star.) Neither was the long-established Center for Reproductive Rights.
Disney’s matching gift platform
This is not the case for all media companies of Disney’s size and stature. Netflix’s corporate matching gift program includes Planned Parenthood on its list of approved charities and nonprofits and the streamer matches up to 200 percent of an eligible employee’s donation (The Ankler was unable to determine which, if any, of the other majors have Planned Parenthood as part of their respective corporate matching gift program). Planned Parenthood shares a spot on a list at Disney that also includes the National Rifle Association deemed ineligible for matching funds.
On Friday, in the wake of the high court’s ruling, Disney joined dozens of other companies pledging to cover employee travel costs for “family planning” for employees who can’t access care where they live. That includes “pregnancy-related decisions”. Disney’s matching program does have some anti-abortion (or at the very least pro-life-adjacent) non-profits and charities. For example, employees can donate to Florida-based Sanford Crisis Pregnancy center which, according to its website, lays out it’s mission as such:
All this comes at an extremely sensitive time for Disney CEO’s Bob Chapek, unwittingly thrust into a national debate over what age and under what conditions children should learn about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. After intense internal pushback among employees, Disney decided to oppose Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Parental Rights In Education — the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill — which triggered a backlash by conservatives. Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature took the extraordinary step of stripping Disney of its special tax status that the company had benefited from for more than 50 years. Florida banned abortions in the wake of the Roe reversal after 15 weeks, including in cases of rape and incest.
It’s unclear which of the 14 criteria for “ineligible organizations” Planned Parenthood triggered at the company. A Disney spokesperson tells The Ankler “the company has been in the process of reviewing its matching gifts program and remains attuned to employee feedback.”
In 2020, Disney reportedly gave $452,630 — 53 percent of its political donations for that year — to anti-choice candidates or their associated PACs.
Which brings us to…
Now Let’s Follow the Money
We’re skeptical of claims that this or that event “changed everything” but last week’s Roe decision is going to change a lot. Particularly, the idea that politics is a consequence-free game.
Further, we’ve come through an era where corporations got involved in politics to look after their own narrow interests. That’s going to become a harder position for studios to cling to in the years ahead.
Hollywood studios are staffed and managed to an enormous extent by progressives. And if you look at the overall tilt of studio giving, you’ll find it tilts heavily to the left. But heavily to the left leaves plenty of room to cover your bases, which is what the studios have done in their contributions: spreading money far and wide to politicians whose goals are at odds with what the studios often publicly proclaim (see last week’s hurried “we’ll pay for travel to get an abortion” messaging).
In the days ahead, the studios are going to come under a great deal of pressure to use their clout to join the fight for their female employees to exercise reproductive freedom in states that have enacted trigger laws. Some already have made steps in that direction. But we thought it would be interesting to take a look at how we got here, money-wise.
While backing any politician who might help them get a tax break or carve out, or push something through committee that might need pushing, the studios were also supporting people who contributed to the current state of affairs. Here’s merely a partial list of donations, past and present, from our standard bearers to anti-abortion candidates
according to Open Secrets and Followthemoney.org. All donations are from the 2022 election cycle, unless otherwise specified. For a fuller list of donations, we’ve assembled a Google Doc that you can read here. And for the record, no studio responded on the record when reached for comment.
Disney 👇👇👇
Says this…
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Responsibility & Freedom Work PAC: $10,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Roger Wicker)
Sen. Marco Rubio: $4,000
Sen. Mike Lee: $5,000
Sen. John Thune: $5,000
Sen. Tim Scott: $2,500
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: $6,500
Rep. Drew Ferguson: $1,500
Rep. Adam Kinzinger: $500
Rep. Dan Crenshaw: $500
Rep. Victoria Spartz: $500
more here
Comcast👇👇👇
Says this…
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Sen. John Boozman: $10,000
Sen. Mike Lee: $10,000
Sen. Jerry Moran: $10,000
Sen. John Thune: $10,000
Rely on Your Beliefs: $10,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Roy Blunt)
Alamo PAC: $10,000, (Affiliated with Sen. John Cornyn)
True North PAC: $10,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Dan Sullivan)
Rep. Brett Guthrie: $10,000
National Republican Congressional Committee: $30,208
National Republican Senatorial Committee: $30,150
more here
Paramount Global 👇👇👇
Says this…
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Heartland Values PAC: $2,500 (Affiliated with Sen. John Thune)
MARSHA PAC: $2,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Marsha Blackburn)
Hawkeye PAC: $2,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Chuck Grassley)
One Georgia PAC: $1,500 (Affiliated with ex-Sen. David Perdue)
Project West PAC – $1,000 (Affiliated with ex-Sen. Cory Gardner)
Majority Committee PAC: $2,500 (Affiliated with Rep. Kevin McCarthy)
Eye of the Tiger PAC: $1,000 (Affiliated with Rep. Steve Scalise)
National Republican Senatorial Committee: $22,500
National Republican Congressional Committee: $15,000
more here
Amazon 👇👇👇
Says this….
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Sen. Bill Hagerty: $10,000
Lead Encourage Elect PAC: $10,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Mike Lee)
Sen. Chuck Grassley: $9,000
Sen. John Cornyn: $5,000
Senator Todd Young: $5,000
Believe In America PAC: $5,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Mitt Romney)
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: $10,000
Rep. Dan Newhouse – $10,000
National Republican Congressional Committee: $15,349
more here
Discovery (donations reflect pre-Warner Bros. merger) 👇👇👇
Says this…
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Fund for America’s Future: $1,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Lindsey Graham)
Sen. Todd Young: $1,000
Rep. Michael McCaul: $1,000
PAC for America: $1,000
Sony Pictures 👇👇👇
Says this…
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Sen. Tim Scott: $3,000
Sen. Jerry Moran: $3,000
Heartland Values PAC: $2,500 (Affiliated with Sen. John Thune)
North Carolina Red: $2,000 (Affiliated with Sen. Thom Tillis)
Sen. Chuck Grassley: $1,000
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers: $3,000
Rep. Rodney Davis: $1,000
Rep. Chip Roy: $1,000
Rep. Tom McClintock: $1,000
Rep. Maria Salazar: $1,000
more here
Netflix 👇👇👇
Says this…
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Sen. Mike Lee: $10,400 (2016)
Good Fund: $5,000 (Affiliated with ex-Rep. Bob Goodlatte) (2016)
Rep. Darrell Issa – $5,000 (2016)
Apple 👇👇👇
Says this…
Financially supports this…
Sample of Political Contributions to Anti-Abortion Candidates/Causes
Congressional Leadership Fund $5,000
Republican National Committee: $1,280 (2020)
more here
New on The Ankler.
The Wakeup: Our new daily morning roundup of Hollywood and media news.
The Misery of Writer Twitter Kit Sergeant on deleting her account, and why you should, too.
Paramount’s Best-Case Scenario: ESG envisions a killer outcome for a denigrated entertainment conglom.
Martini Shot – First Position: Rob Long reveals the kabuki theater in making TV.
