Vice’s Motherboard website has retracted two posts that claimed to report on the backstage drama behind installing Donald Trump into Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents. Here is what was posted on their site:
After a thorough investigation into the sourcing of two stories, “Here’s the Secret Backstage Trump Drama at Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents” and “Behind the Scenes of Disney’s Donald Trump ‘Hall of Presidents’ Installation”, and the identification of several factual errors, we have decided to retract both pieces. We are conducting a full editorial review to pinpoint how this source was vetted, and how these stories were approved and published in violation of our usual editorial workflow. We fell short of our standards, and regret the error.
The pieces claimed there were disagreements between Walt Disney Imagineering and the White House on the content of the President’s speech and discussion as to whether he would speak at all. This resulted in Disney taking the rare step of addressing the questions by stating that he will speak and that a recording session has been scheduled.
It should be noted that Disney has made a substantial investment in Vice and that A&E Networks, which Disney owns 50% of, partners with Vice on the Viceland cable channel.