LolIronically I have so many people on ignore over there its hard for me to make heads or tails of anything.
As someone who has known George personally since his days as EPCOT VP (1995-2000) ... as someone who once took me to dinner (I am sure 31.6% of people here won't believe this, but I don't care ... the truth is the truth) to discuss 'neutralizing' Al ... as someone who was taught quite a lot about being Internet/fanboi savvy by a certain Spirit, I can tell you that I am 99.9% sure that George is leaking whatever he wants through his own channels (not directly, I'm sure).
He is a smart guy and since his first tenure in Anaheim was a disaster that almost cost him his career with Disney (Al Weiss created an opening for him at WDW when Cyn fired him -- and wouldn't even let him show up to the one-year anniversary press conference that announced Bug's Land and ToT were coming) due in no small part to Al's constant criticism of TDA online ... well, he learned his lesson.
Well, I think Gary/'74 enjoyed taking a good pot shot at Al here as '74 always had a disdain for Lutz. But you're right. This is about going after the machine. The one thing i'm still unclear about is if Lutz was actually writing his own stuff or not, but either way, I think with the article that Lutz just came out with that really framed Chapek in a really negative light, '74 used it as an opportunity to further damage Chapek.Somebody said it well on Twitter: this is not about harming Al Lutz, it's about harming Disney's reputation. They have an axe to grind here.
A theory i've heard is that with Iger leaving soon-ish, Chapek was one of the people being groomed for CEO and this article was to basically kill that completely, leaving Disney again without a successor in sight.
What the article tries to claim is that Lutz was basically our first TRUE shill. A respected figure within the Disney community that was being put to use to get Disney’s messaging out.I don't think that's at all what's going on, at least as in what "CLIO" was used for. From what it sounds like, it was less political and more about focus grouping ideas and trying to bid financing in certain projects from Imagineering. The idea that Lutz was an operative solely to get Eisner ousted is ludicrous, considering how far after that CEO's departure he continued allegedly doing their bidding.
So i'm slowly making my way through some threads over on Magic and wow it is good and very, VERY interesting how the usual trolls haven't appeared. Ya know, the kind of trolls that many assume are run by people inside of Disney to spread a positive message. Anyway, I was about 90% sure Snyder was Spirit, but then I came upon a post that brought up a quote from him on June 7th, 2012. This is what he had to say:
It's uncanny how much that aligns almost exactly to part of the Medium article. Any doubt on if it is him is gone now. '74 is either Gary Snyder or Gary's brother Michael Snyder.
Also, has the Snyder's close relationship to CBS been discussed? Interesting timing considering the re-merger with Viacom just happened, which is meant to help compete with Disney on the streaming side.
Crazier: This twitter account came out with all the receipts and tried to out '74 as Mike back in December 2015 when Snyder was writing NYT pieces and the like. But no one paid attention. E Cardon Dead Guy (@ECardonDeadGuy) | Twitter
Then there's this 2006 LA Times story which talks about both Michael and Gary, where they allege they were basically beat up by the Beverly Hills Hotel security, but the story does specifically mention the Snyders living in Florida. Suddenly as I follow this trail it's less and less about Lutz and all about '74...
well, I'm in favor of pressure being put on Chapek's position. I want him out of the company.
What I find existentially troubling about all this for myself, personally, just as a theme park fan, is that if the intention of Snyder's piece (in addition to attempting to destroy reputations in an almost vindictive way) was to put pressure on Chapek's position... well, I'm in favor of pressure being put on Chapek's position. I want him out of the company. But I don't like that my sympathies align me with the same goal of an article that is otherwise written and constructed in a fairly tasteless and classless way (especially if Snyder is who we think he might be).
Woof woof.You know, I think the amount of insider information we get might be affected for a while...