As discussed yesterday, a battle between Disney and Comcast is developing over the acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Disney is also a lobbying heavyweight, but spends much less than Comcast. While the latter paid over $4 million in lobbying expenditures just this year, Disney has only spent $850,000.
The most noteworthy connection between government and Disney is Caroline Sunshine, a former actor on the Disney Channel show “Shake It Up.” She recently joined the Trump White House Press Office as a press assistant.
In 2016, Disney did something a few other corporations have also done: asked its employees to help pay for the company's lobbying. In a letter to Disney employees Bob Iger explained that Disney was lobbying on the issues of copyright law and lowering the corporate tax rate.
The letter suggested a donation to DisneyPAC, saying the following: “For your convenience, DisneyPAC has implemented a payroll deduction system, through which your contributions to the PAC will be deducted from your weekly paycheck.” The letter also stated that jobs wouldn't be affected by a failure to donate.
Note that Richard Bates, who holds the top in-house lobbying position at Disney, was also the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
