Oh man, I'm too excited about this very niche thread -- journalistic ethics in reporting on Disney and theme parks-- and I'm jumping on a day late.
I've covered a lot of beats as a journalist, from sports to local, state, and national politics, to health care to tracking health disinformation. Theme park reporting is something I do for fun on the side. In all of those beats, no PR staff has been more consistently confrontational, overbearing and unhelpful as those at Disney and Universal.
The last Disney media event I was invited to was the Toy Story Land opening in 2018, back when my site was called Orlando Rising, not Theme Park Tribune. Since I was still relatively new to the beat, I was assigned a Disney PR handler to follow me around the land. Among the multiple red flags that day, she forbid me from photographing how visible Galaxy's Edge construction was from the land -- even though actual guests with no such restrictions would do so just two days later -- and claimed later that this comment was "off the record" (which I never agreed to).
When I asked two Disney spokespersons (who were unnervingly positive, very "Stepford Wives" vibe) if any additional barrier would be added to block views of Galaxy's Edge from Toy Story Land before the public opening, they sternly replied, "We are not talking about that future experience today" and my handler scolded me for asking the question. I explained that I was there as a journalist to document the new land, not to explicitly promote it. I haven't been invited to a Disney event since.
Now, I have nowhere close to the following of
@lentesta or others that have been banned, but I suspect the smaller your podcasts or site, it's a lower bar to blacklist you. In this case, Disney sure didn't seem to like my line of questioning.
I don't see these practices changing when you've got a former Big Oil spokesperson running PR now. If they're willing to cut off the Washington Post, they'll cut off anybody.
I won't knock every influencer or YouTuber out there, but there are many who seem to either lack any ethical qualms about towing the Disney line or can't afford to risk their access. At the Toy Story Land opening, I saw a group of Disney "mom bloggers" whose only complaints were they weren't getting
enough freebies, like getting to bring their kids into the media preview.
I agree with this. Covering disinformation is my day job, and there are efforts in the political realm to freeze out news outlets that will report fairly and focus more on partisan sources that can be controlled. Obviously what Disney does can seem trivial in comparison, but the company will punish outlets for reporting important stories that reflect negatively on the company, like they did with the LA Times. I'm honestly surprised the Sentinel didn't get punished for its series on the lives of low-wage Disney World workers.
This is happening more with non-Disney parks right now, as I've dealt with some PR people retaliating against sites and publications that reported on their COVID-19 policies in any way that could have been perceived as critical.
Absolutely. Disney and Universal PR both use these tactics, though they may not deny access to the same publications. Some other parks can be similarly heavy-handed -- one Six Flags park refuses to even send press releases to me -- but others just want publicity rather than being so concerned with controlling the message.
That's an interesting way to do things. Perhaps even the fairest solution I've heard of in this instance.
I know one popular set of vloggers and Disney influencers have a policy of not reviewing anything when they were given free access. I don't think that's necessary if they're following similar standards set for movie or TV or book or food critics. Just be upfront about the access you were provided and approach a review from the perspective of "Is this worth the money an actual guest will pay for the experience?" And if you are a journalist, I think it helps readers if you distinguish your review (essentially an opinion piece) from what you consider news reporting.
