The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) chair, Brendan Carr, announced that he intends to investigate the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) practices of Disney and ABC. This investigation will look both at current practices and past practices to see if any FCC regulations were violated.
Carr, who was chosen by President Trump to be the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, said the investigation is to look into concerns that Disney and ABC could be “promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
The investigation was announced in a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger from Carr. It said the probe will explore whether Disney or ABC has violated any FCC equal employment opportunity regulations.
“Numerous reports indicate that Disney’s leadership went all in on invidious forms of DEI discrimination a few years ago and apparently did so in a manner that infected many aspects of your company’s decisions,” Carr wrote in the letter.
This letter and investigation come after Disney has scaled back its DEI efforts after the election of President Trump. This has had Disney dropping some initiatives and softening the language regarding DEI throughout the company. Carr acknowledged the recent changes in the letter but also stated that, ” it is not clear that the underlying policies have changed in a fundamental manner.”
There are a couple of specific issues that Carr takes with the company. One of them is
Disney’s Reimagine Tomorrow. He states that this is a “mechanism for advancing its DEI mission.” The social media for these efforts says that this is meant to amplify “stories and storytellers that inspire a more inclusive world.” Carr also pointed out an ABC 2020 memo that outlined its inclusion standards. They required that 50% of regular and recurring characters must be drawn from “underrepresented groups.” The same applied to writers and actors.
Disney’s Reimagine Tomorrow website was recently taken down. Some of its social handles still can be found online, however.
In response to the letter, Disney released a statement saying, “We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission’s letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions.”
What do you think of this investigation? What do you think will end up happening because of it? Share your thoughts and opinions (kindly) in the comments below.
