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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The CEO who never was: how Linda Yaccarino was set up to fail at Elon Musk's X
In May 2023, when Linda Yaccarino, an NBC advertising executive, joined what was then still known as Twitter, she was given a tall order: repair the company's relationship with advertisers after a chaotic year of being owned by Elon Musk. But just weeks after she became CEO, Musk posted an antisemitic tweet that drove away major brands such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros Discovery to pause their advertising on the platform. Musk delivered an apology for the tweet later at a conference – which he called the worst post he's ever done – but it came with a message to advertisers, specifically the Disney CEO Bob Iger: 'Go fuck yourselves.' Yaccarino was in the audience of the conference. 'I don't want them to advertise,' he said. 'If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money, go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself,' he said. 'Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you're in the audience, that's how I feel.' In the two years since, Yaccarino has had to contend with the unpredictability of Musk, ongoing content moderation and hate speech issues on the platform, increasingly strained relationships with advertisers and widespread backlash her boss received for his role in Donald Trump's administration. Her response in some cases was to remain silent; in others, she chose to defend the company. Through it all, however, experts say it was clear Yaccarino was the chief executive in title only. Related: Linda Yaccarino stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk's X 'The reality is that Elon Musk is and always has been at the helm of X,' said Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester VP. 'It was clear from the start that she was being set up to fail by a limited scope as the company's chief executive. Her background and actual authority positioned her more as the company's chief advertising officer, rather than its CEO.' Even in her de facto role as a chief advertising officer, Musk's incessant posting, impulsive decision making and obsession with X and other platforms becoming too 'woke' posed huge obstacles for Yaccarino. 'The only thing that's surprising about Linda Yaccarino's resignation is that it didn't come sooner,' said Proulx. This week alone, Grok, the AI chatbot integrated with X, posted several antisemitic remarks, including some praising Hitler, after the company included new guidelines for the chatbot. In guidelines xAI published, Grok had been instructed not to 'shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated'. xAI removed that guideline from its code on Tuesday evening. Yaccarino's tenure as CEO of X was not only bookended with antisemitism scandals – Musk's and Grok's offensive tweets – but was also punctuated with several accusations of antisemitism against her boss throughout her short stint. In 2023, the non-profit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate published a report on the prevalence of hate speech, both antisemitic and otherwise, on X as well as the lack of moderation. The company's response was to sue the organization; the suit was ultimately dismissed. Similarly, the non-profit Media Matters for America highlighted the appearance of pro-Nazi tweets alongside branded advertisements in a report that preceded a mass advertiser exodus from the social network. X sued Media Matters. Most notably, Musk was accused of doing back-to-back Nazi salutes at a Trump inauguration rally at the start of 2025. Musk brushed aside the allegations that it was a Nazi salute and posted several Nazi puns on X. At the time, Yaccarino provided no additional comment, but posted a laughing face emoji in response to Musk's jokes. Musk's salute and the ensuing backlash was one of several moments that solidified the overall rightward shift of the social network as droves of users began to flock to alternative platforms like Bluesky, and even Reddit communities began banning X links. When Yaccarino joined X, she set about courting celebrities and partnerships to reinvigorate the social network's brand and repair relationships that Musk's contentious takeover had damaged. Musk had long talked of making X into an 'everything app' that would integrate payments, AI, messaging, livestreaming and other new features alongside the social network's public posting, another task given to Yaccarino. Yaccarino led a delegation of executives, including Musk himself, to meet with industry leaders at the Cannes Lions festival in 2023, and began seeking media figures who could feature on the platform. One of Yaccarino's moves toward making the platform into what she described as a 'global town square' was reaching out to the former CNN host Don Lemon to start a show on X, much as the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson had agreed to put his content on site. Lemon's first interview for the platform was with Musk, in what was intended to be a showcase of how X was shifting and bringing in big-name creators. The plan backfired after Lemon's interview with Musk grew heated over questions about the billionaire's drug use, which was quickly followed by Musk telling Lemon's agent that his contract was canceled. Future shows with big-name creators never materialized. In the ensuing two years, rather than become a destination for mainstream talent, a streaming powerhouse or the 'everything app' that Yaccarino promoted, X has largely become a megaphone for Musk to air his grievances, boost and then feud with Trump, and promote his companies. Far-right influencers, porn spambots and meme accounts proliferate, while many media outlets have deprioritized the platform or left it altogether. Misinformation and extremism are rampant, sometimes coming from Musk himself. The day before Yaccarino resigned, X became involved in a scandal that epitomized much of what the platform has become. Musk had recently posted that he would be reconfiguring xAI's chatbot, Grok, because he did not agree with the responses it was generating. On Tuesday, users noticed that the chatbot had begun to reply to queries with blatantly antisemitic posts praising Nazi ideology. A flood of users began posting more screenshots of Grok posting rape fantasies, identifying itself as 'MechaHitler' and promoting conspiracies before the company removed the posts. Incidents like Grok's foray into Nazism are some of the many reasons Yaccarino's goal of revitalizing X has sputtered. Although she succeeded in courting a number of major companies to begin advertising again last year, at a time when Musk's connections to the White House were strongest, the platform's ad revenues have never reached anywhere near their pre-Musk levels, according to the research firm Emarketer. The platform also resorted to threats of lawsuits against major companies such as Verizon if they did not buy advertising on the site, according to a Wall Street Journal report that Yaccarino has denied. After more than two years of Yaccarino running damage control for her boss and the platform's myriad issues, Musk issued only a brief statement acknowledging she was stepping down. 'Thank you for your contributions,' Musk responded to Yaccarino's post announcing her resignation. Minutes later, he began sending replies to other posts about SpaceX, artificial intelligence and how his chatbot became a Nazi.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Disneyland's new audio-animatronic Walt Disney shocked me. Here's what it's really like.
Walt Disney, is that really you? I know it's not. And yet, inside "Walt Disney – A Magical Life" at Disneyland, I can't help but suspend my disbelief as I watch the first-ever audio-animatronic figure of the Disney mastermind himself discussing his humble origins from a recreation of his office. He gesticulates with his hands. His eyes twinkle. At one point, he even takes a step forward. I sit up in my seat, half-wondering if Disney has really come back from the dead – and, if he ever actually did, what he would think of this. Debuting during Disneyland Resort's 70th anniversary celebration, "Walt Disney – A Magical Life" doesn't open to the public at Main Street Opera House until July 17, the park's exact 70th anniversary. At an exclusive media preview on July 14, however, I got to be a part of the attraction's first real audience. The experience wasn't something I'm going to forget any time soon. Walt Disney's audio-animatronic figure is uncanny, down to his 'corneal bulge' Disney getting immortalized as an audio-animatronic figure is a big deal − and a long time coming. After all, it was Disney who helped pioneer audio-animatronics technology, with figures like the tiki birds of the classic attraction Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and the original President Abraham Lincoln in "The Disneyland Story presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.' (An updated Lincoln Audio-Animatronics figure anchors the current version, which will eventually play in rotation with "Magical Life," thanks to a revolving turntable on the stage for both attractions.) 'We're at a moment in time, 70 years after Disneyland opened, where we feel that the technology has caught up with our ambition to tell Walt's story and to let the newest generation of Disney fans experience what it felt like to be in a room with Walt,' Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D'Amaro told USA TODAY during last year's D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, where the attraction was announced. Seeing Disney in audio-animatronics form is an uncanny experience, one that came about through meticulous design. In a panel as part of the media preview, Tom Fitzgerald, senior creative executive with Walt Disney Imagineering, said imagineers poured over many hours of archival footage to get Disney's audio-animatronic figure just right. They studied everything − his mannerisms, his facial muscles, even his slightest eyebrow movements. "It's the small, gentle movements that I think bring so much heart and humanity," Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz, portfolio executive creative producer with Walt Disney Imagineering, added. Imagineers even made sure to do justice to Disney's "corneal bulge," something Fitzgerald described as key to capturing that "glint in the eye." As a result, when the audio-animatronic Disney surveys the crowd, it feels like he's really looking at you. When Kirsten Komoroske, executive director of The Walt Disney Family Museum, saw it for the first time, she said she "felt the impulse to smile back at him." I did, too. The audio-animatronic Walt Disney captures something special Now, is this audio-animatronics figure a perfect copy of Disney? Not quite − though it's close. In my view, however, this question misses the point. I did not go into this show expecting, nor wanting, to see a mere physical replica of Disney. I wanted to experience his essence, to get a sense of how people felt in the legend's presence. This is something "A Magical Life" undoubtedly delivers on. Combine that with all the Disney history that gets recapped in a delightful, approximately 15-minute short film, "One Man's Dream," that screens before the audio-animatronic's unveiling, and you have a must-do for any Disney history nerd who wants to learn more about the park while feeling more connected to Disney's legacy. "What are the things that make Walt Disney Walt?" Fitzgerald asked. "These are the things that we asked our animation team to create." I'm sure the audio-animatronic Lincoln waiting backstage would tip a top hat to that, if he could.
Geek Tyrant
3 hours ago
- Geek Tyrant
Sarah Jessica Parker Says There've Been Discussions About HOCUS POCUS 3 Since Co-Stars Told Disney to Hurry and Finish the Script — GeekTyrant
Sarah Jessica Parker appeared on Watch What Happens Live! this week, and was asked by host Andy Cohen for an update on the status of Hocus Pocus 3 , which Disney first announced was in development two years ago. Since then, it has been crickets from the studio about another sequel in the beloved Halloween fantasy series. Aside from the studio remaining tight-lipped, Parker remains committed to returning. The actress said of the sequel, 'No more developments other than we would like to do it. We've been having some conversations.' Parker co-starred in the 1993 fan-favorite, Hocus Pocus , alongside Bette Midler and Kathy Najimy as the Sanderson sisters, a trio of witches who get resurrected on Halloween night and try to scheme their way to permanently staying in the land of the living. All three actors returned for 2022's Hocus Pocus 2 . Najimy called on Disney one year ago to hurry up and get the Hocus Pocus 3 script finished because the three women aren't getting any younger. She quipped: 'I haven't seen the script, but I've heard rumblings. I think if they're gonna, they oughta, because time is not just marching, time is barrel-assing to the finish line. Get us while we're still breathing, I mean, God!' Hocus Pocus 2 screenwriter Jen D'Angelo confirmed to Entertainment Weekly in 2023 after the end the end of the WGA strike that Hocus Pocus 3 was still in development. 'We're still in the story phase, we're still working on it,' D'Angelo said at the time. 'We've been working on some ideas. It's been fun to dive back into that world and we have so many directions in which to go and so many new characters to explore. We've only scratched the surface of Hannah Waddingham's mother witch. I'm hoping that we are able to explore every aspect of these stories and take these characters on a bunch of fun adventures,' D'Angelo continued. 'We don't really know what it is, but we're exploring all options and I think everybody is so delighted by the reaction that 'Hocus Pocus 2' got, and we're excited to continue those stories.' The second film wasn't as great as the first, but it was still a lot of fun to revisit these characters and build on the lore of the original. I look forward to seeing what they cook up next. via: Variety
