Trump's FCC says it will start investigating Disney, too
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images.
- Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, says he's going to start investigating Disney's DEI practices.
- Carr has already announced similar DEI investigations into Comcast and Verizon.
- Donald Trump, who appointed Carr to run the FCC, has made it clear he thinks many media companies are his enemies. Carr says he's merely enforcing existing rules.
Last month, the Trump administration said it was going to start investigating Comcast. Next on the list: Disney.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, says he will likely start probing Disney's DEI practices and is "putting the finishing touches" on a letter to the company announcing his efforts.
Carr told Punchbowl News his aim would be similar to DEI-centric investigations he's already announced for Comcast and Verizon. Earlier this month, Disney shareholders rejected an anti-DEI proposal.
Carr's interview was published a few days after he'd announced that the FCC might block any deal involving a company that promotes DEI.
"Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination," he said last week.
I've asked Carr, the FCC, and Disney for comment.
The broader context: Donald Trump has made it clear for years that he considers many media companies to be biased against him, and he routinely threatens to take action against them. Earlier this month, for instance, in a speech at the Department of Justice, he called MSNBC and CNN "illegal," and "political arms of the Democrat Party."
And Carr, who Trump appointed to the FCC in 2017, and promoted to chairman this year, has made it clear that his agency will be scrutinizing many media companies. He has floated the idea that some of their broadcast licenses could be at stake.
Worth noting: Last fall, Disney settled a defamation suit Trump filed as a private citizen. Following the 2024 election, Disney agreed to make a $15 million donation to Trump's presidential library, and to pay another $1 million in attorneys' fees, in a case about on-air comments made by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos.
At the time, the settlement appeared to be motivated, at least in part, to keep Disney out of the Trump administration's crosshairs.
If that was the case, it doesn't appear to have worked.