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Just how concerned is Bob Iger about an upcoming, unauthorized book? I’m told Disney has hired pitbull anti-media litigator Charles Harder—yes, that Charles Harder—to push back on author Robbie Whelan’s tome, which I first revealed back in 2023 with the working title The House of Mouse: Bob Iger and the Fight for the Soul of Disney.
In recent weeks, Harder has sent multiple threatening letters to publisher Harper Collins, seeking information about the book’s contents and slamming Whelan, a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter, as a supposedly biased journalist committing a hit job on Iger and the company. In the letters, Disney points to previous negative coverage by Whelan, fishes for clues as to what is being included, and demands sufficient time to “fact check” the book, which has been positioned in the publishing world as a thorough and unvarnished portrait of one of the most famous C.E.O.s of the past 50 years, including his abrupt Disney exit as the pandemic began in 2020 and his return to power less than two years later. Since even before its announcement, the Whelan book has been a hot topic at Disney, which has refused to participate at all.
Harder’s client is technically Disney, not Iger himself, though the letter campaign started before Iger handed the C.E.O. title to Josh D’Amaro last month (he’s still on the company’s board and a “senior advisor” until the end of the year), and Iger is said to be a driving force behind what certainly smells like a campaign of intimidation. Disney and Whelan declined to comment, and Harper Collins didn’t return my email.
It’s funny: Iger, despite more than two decades overseeing journalism organizations at ABC News and ESPN, is famously thin-skinned about how he’s portrayed in the media, and he hasn’t been afraid to lash out at outlets that cross him. Remember back in 2017, when Disney banned the L.A. Times from movie screenings as punishment for tough reporting on the company’s dealings with the city of Anaheim? Iger also likely remembers how much his predecessor, Michael Eisner, hated the classic James B. Stewart book Disney War in 2005, and how Eisner was cast as a villain of sorts. It certainly impacted Eisner’s legacy, at least among those who devour books about the media business, meaning Iger’s peers.
The Iger Files
According to multiple sources, Iger has repeatedly expressed concern about the potential contents of the book to others at Disney. Many at the company believe Whelan’s sources include Iger’s C.E.O. successor Bob Chapek, whom Iger eventually replaced, as well as others who left Disney and may be disgruntled. Harder, they likely hope, can kill aspects of the book, particularly anything potentially unflattering about Iger. (I’m not revealing what I’ve heard about the book’s contents because I haven’t independently reported it out myself.)
And yes, as I mentioned, Disney’s lawyer is the same Charles Harder who famously defended Donald Trump in the defamation suit by porn star Stormy Daniels. Harder and his very Trumpy-sounding law firm, Harder Stonerock (that’s not a joke… they should’ve just called it Giant Boner LLP), has handled various defamation matters for Trump’s campaign and Melania Trump against the Daily Mail. Team Trump likes Harder so much, they made the L.A.-based lawyer a “U.S. Special Envoy for Best Future Generations,” which sounds like a fake title or a Scientology initiative but is apparently a real thing. Harder worked for Harvey Weinstein at the outset of the mogul’s downfall (he actually sued Harvey for $180,000 in unpaid legal fees), and was on Hulk Hogan’s team in the case that brought down Gawker.
Quite the client company for Disney and Iger, who has always positioned himself as a press-freedom advocate. Iger’s name is on the ABC News building in New York, and his wife, Willow Bay, is dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (though Iger also signed off on the $16 million payoff to Trump to settle the dubious lawsuit over George Stephanopoulos’s comments about the E. Jean Carroll case). Iger is also writing a follow-up to his 2019 book, The Ride of a Lifetime, which was announced back in 2022 but was put on hold after he returned to Disney. Page Six reported a few months ago that former Hillary Clinton comms person Dan Schwerin is helping write it (I confirmed that’s true), and a source close to Iger told me he sees his book as a chance to counter Whelan and other non-approved media narratives. That’s how I’d advise Iger, free-speech advocate, to counter a book he hates. Fight the speech not by trying to suppress it, but with more speech.
It’s also amusing that Whelan’s publisher is Harper Collins, which, like the Journal, is owned by the Murdochs. Iger, of course, spearheaded Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of most of Rupert’s Fox empire, and Iger once told CNBC that “we genuinely like each other and respect each other.” Now it’s Iger and Disney, not Murdoch and Fox News, who have jumped into bed with a right-wing Trump tool of media suppression, and with a Murdoch outlet as a target. Maybe the two moguls should again get together over a glass of Moraga Estate wine in Bel-Air to resolve this budding feud.