 |
Disney World is going to be hard-pressed to live up to its billing as "The Most Magical Place on Earth" if it sticks to its plan to reopen the Orlando theme park with limited capacity on July 11.
It will be staffed with disgruntled employees who are scared to death of catching COVID-19.
Disney World could become the most nightmarish place on Earth. How's that for a crisis PR scenario?
A petition drive organized by Disney employees calls for a delay in the reopening the park due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in Florida.
The Sunshine State reports more than 100K cases of coronavirus and a single-day record high of 4,049 new cases on June 20.
Addressed to Orange County mayor Jerry Demings and Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer, the petition notes that theme parks are not deemed essential businesses.
It reads: "As individuals who work in the bustling tourism industry in central Florida, we are responsible for ensuring the safety of our guests and our fellow magic makers… This includes our health and wellbeing. We are encouraged to say something when we see something that we deem is unsafe so we’re speaking up… While theme parks are a great way to relax and enjoy free time, it is a non-essential business; it is not fair to the people who work there to risk their lives, especially if they are at risk or have family members who are at risk. People are more important than making a profit."
Disney fans also have expressed their opinion about the reopening. They swamped Disney's advanced reservations booking system, when it opened for business on June 21.
Facebook is the No. 1 platform for online hate and harassment, according to a survey released June 23 by the Anti-Defamation League.
It found that 28 percent of Americans experienced sexual harassment, stalking, physical threats, swatting, or doxing.
More than three-quarters (77 percent) of them said harassment occurred on Facebook while the rest was experienced on Twitter (27 percent), YouTube (21 percent), Instagram (20 percent) and WhatsApp (nine percent).
The ADL is part of the #StopHateforProfit coalition launched June 17 to ask large advertisers to boycott Facebook to show "they will not support a company that puts profit over safety."
Other members are the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color Of Change, Free Press and Common Sense.
The ADL's survey reported big jumps in identity-based harassment. Sixty-one percent of Muslims felt their harassment was due to their religion. That's up from 35 percent from the 2019 survey.
Asian-Americans ranked next, with 55 percent saying harassment was due to race, compared to 20 percent in 2018.
That was followed by Jews for their religious identity (43 percent in 2020, 35 percent in 2018), African Americans for their race (42 percent in 2020, 27 percent in 2018) and Hispanics or Latinos for their race (42 percent in 2020, 30 percent in 2018).
The LGBTQ+ community bucked the trend, reporting a decline (48 percent in 2020 vs. 63 percent) in harassment due to their sexual orientation.
FIFA is expected to scrap its “FIFA Peace Prize-Football Unites the World” award at its December council meeting. That’s not enough... Big Oil is loaded with cash flowing from the Iran war. Wall Street wants to know how will it spend the windfall... More and more killers of journalists are escaping punishment.
Will White House press secretary Katie Zacharia remain on the job for two or three Scaramuccis?... President Trump reaches a new low with wicked deal to buy diesel from his puppet-master Vladimir Putin... Russian influence operations pump out more than 900 stories in impersonated western media outlets to undermine support for Ukraine.
Donald Trump is 100 percent correct that he has lousy PR but that's only because his policies stink and are hurting Americans... Will billionaires or civil society groups shape the future of AI regulations?... "Evidence in an Age of Doubt" is the timely theme of this year's investigative film festival put on by the 100Reporters group. 
WPP CEO Cindy Rose works to manage shareholder expectations ahead of the Oct. 29 release of financials. Don't expect a miracle turnaround... Kudos to Skydance chief David Ellison for keeping CNN CEO Mark Thompson on the job. Now he has to expend Thompson's contract... Vast majority of Americans want federal government to regulate AI. They obviously don't trust the "super intelligence" president to oversee AI.
Don’t believe what your eyes see and ears hear is the mantra of Donald Trump who claims his propaganda advertising designed to boost his fragile ego are “clearly not campaign ads”... Democratic National Committee steps up outreach to Jewish Americans as antisemitism rises and traditional support for Israel tanks. 
