The blast zone from The Walt Disney Company’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show off the air is now threatening to engulf the Brentwood home of Bob Iger, who just happens to be married to Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Iger, along with Disney Entertainment chairman Dana Walden, was the Disney exec who pulled the chord on Kimmel’s suspension over on-air comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder — and that decision has prompted a journalism non-profit that Bay (and Iger) have supported for years to consider distancing themselves from the westside power couple. An annual fundraiser for the International Women’s Media Foundation, an organization dedicated to elevating female and non-binary journalists and boasts some of the biggest names in broadcast journalism as board members — CBS’ Norah O’Donnell, NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, and ABC News’ Kerry Smith, among others — is reconsidering its decision to hold its annual fundraiser at Bay and Iger’s home next month, according to several sources.
No final decision has been made, but several board members have expressed their concerns internally over the optics of holding a free speech event at the home of the man who yanked Kimmel off the air. Iger’s decision has prompted widespread condemnation across the media and entertainment landscape as a brazen capitulation to the Trump Administration that’s been trying to silence its critics.
An IMWF source expressed sympathy for Bay, who, as a spouse, should not be held accountable for the decisions of her husband, but then added that as the head of one of the most prestigious journalism programs in the country thrusts her into a particularly tricky spot. “The discussion among some board members is that we just can’t hold this event right now,” says a source.
Bay is a former news anchor and correspondent and worked for NBC’s Today Show and ABC’s Good Morning America Sunday among others. She and Iger married in 1995, and she was appointed the first female dean of Annenberg in 2017. Her ties to the IMWF dates back almost two decades. She’s the chair of the IMWF’s Los Angeles advisory committee and has been a major donor as well. Last year the Iger Bay Foundation gave $50K to the IMWF.
Bay did not respond to a request for comment.
