‘It is hypocritical for the company to remain silent on the issue when it happens in the House of Mouse…’

‘The View’ with Joy Behar in blackface, background

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Disney CEO Bob Iger is one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. He’s also a self-styled progressive champion of diversity.

But when it comes to holding some top Disney-employed talent accountable for overt racism, he’s “quiet as a Mouse,” said Justin Danhof, director of the pro-conservative Free Enterprise Project.

ABC, a Disney subsidiary, was quick to dispense with comedian Roseanne Barr after a poorly-conceived tweet last year comparing Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to a character from “The Planet of the Apes.”

However, after vocally repudiating blackface scandals elsewhere, Iger was more reluctant to address the issue when it came to two outspoken liberal network stars at the network: late night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel and “The View” co-host Joy Behar.

Danhof publicly confronted the Iger about the double-standard at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.

“Mr. Iger, with all of the pride that you place on racial diversity at Disney—and I am specifically recalling the pride that you expressed last year at this meeting and in many media interviews about the success and importance of ‘Black Panther’—I find it puzzling that the company seems OK with Kimmel’s and Behar’s previous racist actions,” Danhof said.

Danhof reminded Iger that ABC news hosts were extremely critical of NBC star Megyn Kellyfor an October 2018 segment in which she defended the use of blackface in Halloween costumes.

ABC has also been critical of Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam since a yearbook photo emerged last month showing him in blackface next to someone in a Klu Klux Klan costume.

“Two premier ABC hosts have their own sordid past with blackface. While on another network, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel donned blackface to mock a former professional athlete using what many would consider a racist minstrel dialect. Furthermore, ‘The View’ host Joy Behar recently had a photo emerge in which she was donning blackface at a party,” Danhof said.

“Can you comment on their use of blackface? And are they held to a different standard than politicians and newscasters because they are comedians?” he asked.

In response, Iger said he had already dealt with those matters “privately” and that there was nothing to talk about

“But that could easily mean it was simply ignored,” Danhof said.

“It is hypocritical for the company to remain silent on the issue when it happens in the House of Mouse,” Danhof later said in a statement, adding, that if Disney is going to publicly criticize others for blackface, “it should publicly criticize its own employees for doing so as well.”