FCC Opens Investigation Into Disney for Going ‘All In’ on DEI

Chairman Brendan Carr says he is concerned the media giant's policies may violate the agency's "prohibitions on invidious forms of discrimination" The post FCC Opens Investigation Into Disney for Going ‘All In’ on DEI appeared first on TheWrap.

Mar 28, 2025 - 22:07

FCC Opens Investigation Into Disney for Going ‘All In’ on DEI

After previously warning that he planned to investigate Disney and ABC over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, the FCC sent a letter to CEO Bob Iger inquiring about the matter on Thursday.

“While Disney started as an iconic American company, it recently went all in on DEI,” chairman Brendan Carr wrote in a Friday post on X sharing the letter. “I am concerned that their DEI practices may violate FCC prohibitions on invidious forms of discrimination.”

Though Carr acknowledged that Disney has recently walked back some of its DEI programs, his letter said that “significant concerns remain” due to public reports and whistleblower documents that “paint a disturbing picture” of the company’s DEI practices.

Carr cited at least one account where a Disney employee described the company’s decision to “launch what would amount to racially segregated affinity groups and spaces.”

He also took aim at the company’s “Reimagine Tomorrow” initiative, which he said was a “mechanism for advancing its DEI mission,” and ABC’s inclusion standards, arguing that they “may have forced racial and identity quotas into every level of production” by requiring 50% of regular and recurring characters to be drawn from underrepresented groups and demanding 50% or more of writers, directors, crew and vendors be selected based on group identity. Additionally, he claimed executive bonuses may have been tied to DEI performance and that ABC utilized race-based hiring databases and restricted fellowships to select demographic groups.

Disney recently said it would end its “Reimagine Tomorrow” initiative. However, the company’s shareholders voted to reject a proposal that would’ve ended the company’s involvement in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, a survey that measures corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality, at its annual meeting. Disney’s board recommended against the proposal and its shareholders overwhelmingly agreed, with only 1% voting in favor, according to a preliminary tally.

I have asked the @FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Disney & ABC.

While Disney started as an iconic American company, it recently went all in on DEI.

I am concerned that their DEI practices may violate FCC prohibitions on invidious forms of discrimination. pic.twitter.com/E31QwwFcxA— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) March 28, 2025

“Although your company recently made some changes to how it brands certain efforts, it is not clear that the underlying policies have changed in a fundamental manner — nor that past practices complied with relevant FCC regulations,” the letter continued. “As I have made clear, promoting invidious forms of discrimination cannot be squared with any reasonable interpretation of federal law. Doing so only deprives Americans of their rights to fair and equal treatment under the law.”

Carr has asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to obtain an accounting of Disney and ABC’s DEI programs, policies and practices, noting in the letter that it would follow up with more specifics.

“We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission’s letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions,” a Disney spokesperson told TheWrap.

Carr’s latest shot at Disney comes after he penned a letter to Iger earlier this year, warning that he would be monitoring the company’s carriage negotiations with local broadcast TV stations.

At the time, he accused ABC of “attempting to extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations under the threat of terminating long-held affiliations, which could result in blackouts and other harms to local consumers of broadcast news and content.”

The FCC also reinstated a “news distortion” complaint against ABC affiliate WPVI-TV over the network’s fact-checking of Donald Trump during a presidential debate. Disney separately reached a $15 million settlement with Trump after he sued the network and its anchor George Stephanopoulos for defamation.

In addition to its DEI investigation into Disney, Carr has launched separate probes into NBCUniversal parent Comcast and Verizon. He also threatened to block M&A by any company who embraces DEI.

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