Video shows comedian, not Disney executive, speaking at city council meeting | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read

The claim: Video shows Disney executive announcing company's new pediatric transgender clinics

A July 7 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) begins with a screenshot of a headline that reads, "DISNEY EXECUTIVE REVEALS SHOCKING NEXT PHASE FOR COMPANY – NOBODY SAW THIS COMING…OR DID THEY?"

The video then shows a man walking up to a podium and speaking to a table of city council members.

"Thank you, I'm Alan Bergman," the man says. "I'm the co-chair of the entertainment division at Disney and we have a special announcement to make today. ... We're proud to announce that this summer we're going to be opening Disney-themed pediatric transgender clinics for the children across the country."

The video includes screenshots of articles about Disney including LGBTQ characters in its shows and movies.

The post garnered more than 4,000 shares in a week, while the original TikTok garnered more than 7,000 likes in nine days. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Facebook and Instagram.

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Our rating: False

The video features a comedian satirically posing as a Disney executive. The company isn't opening any transgender clinics.

Video was created as satire

The headline featured in the Facebook video comes from a Bitchute video shared by conservative comedian Mark Dice, who attended a June 21 Oceanside City Council Meeting in California.

The video's description says Dice was posing as Bergman, the Disney co-chair, as a form of satire.

"While it's 'just' satire, is it really that far from the actual truth?" reads the description.

Dice shared the video on YouTube as well with the same satire disclaimer.

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Nine days later, the comedian shared a similar video on YouTube, in which he attended a Del Mar City Council meeting in California and made the same claim posing as Bergman.

The Facebook video is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where posts created as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.

Dice has uploaded numerous videos of himself attending various city council meetings across California, posing as other characters such as a professor who teaches critical race theory and a father of a transgender Ugandan child.

Bergman is pictured on the Disney website and clearly looks different than Dice.

There haven't been any credible reports of Disney opening transgender clinics.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The TikTok user couldn't be contacted.

The claim has also been debunked by PolitiFact.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, Disney isn't opening pediatric transgender clinics | Fact check