While other media companies are abandoning discriminatory Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies, Disney appears to be continuing practices that could result in severe penalties, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr says.
Chairman Carr issued the warning in a Pod Force One interview with Host Mirada Devine, discussing how, during the Biden Administration, the FCC pumped “millions and millions” into promoting DEI ideology in an effort that distracted the FCC from its true mission.
“That had real, practical consequences. So, Day One, we came in and we ended the FCC’s promotion of DEI,” Carr said, noting how the policies enacted under the previous administration were unjustifiably punitive, redundant and counterproductive. They even inhibited efforts to bring high-speed internet to the public, he explained.
Companies, like Disney, that continue to cling to DEI ideology could face a range of penalties, including loss of their licenses, if they discriminate against employees based on race and gender, Chairman Carr said:
“Disney, which owns ABC: there’s been some really concerning evidence that has come to light that Disney DEI practices, that they were effectively discriminating against people, based on race and gender.
“We’re still looking at that, we’ll allow them to make their case, we have an open mind on it. But, we do have an investigation going on right now into Disney’s DEI practices.”
“And it could get bad for Disney, depending on what the facts show,” Chairman Carr said.
Currently, the evidence appears to suggest racial discrimination, Carr explained:
“There is evidence that they were creating internal promotions, internal work groups – again, siloing and dividing people based on race and gender.
“And, again, the evidence indicates, and there may be counter-evidence out there, that you had promotion opportunities, or you were judged, on how much you were promoting people based on skin color.”
“That is something that is really invidious that I thought that, as a country, we had stopped doing 60, 70, 80 years ago,” Carr said. “And, I’m glad we’re getting back to treating everyone, regardless of skin color, regardless of any other protected characteristics, based on their merits. That’s how it should be.”
“And, to be honest, it looks like they’re taking a pretty big hit at the box office; you see them pushing some of that stuff. It’s just not resonating with people,” Carr said. Meanwhile, family-friendly and pro-America content has proven to be extremely popular with the public, he said.
“Again, it’s sort of a symptom of what I view the broader media ecosystem being out of place,” Carr said.
“New York and Hollywood have never really been known for having the pulse of the cross-section of the country, but it got worse in the late twenty-teens and the early 2020’s, where we saw this significant explosion of DEI and woke ideology. And it was just fully embraced – hook, line and sinker – by New York and Hollywood.”
Still, there appears to be a “course correction” taking place with other businesses regulated by the FCC and in the country, as a whole, Chairman Carr said.
