FCC chair threatens ABC's broadcast license over Disney DEI practices
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr suggested in an interview Monday that ABC’s broadcast license could be at risk as the federal regulatory agency probes Disney, ABC’s parent company, over its alleged efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) through its hiring practices.
“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” Carr said in an interview with Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich on Monday.
“But we’re going to follow the facts wherever they go,” he added.
Carr announced Friday that he is opening an investigation into Disney over potential violations of the FCC’s equal employment opportunity (EEO) regulations through the company’s DEI policies.
Carr said the probe is “about the hiring practices and their employment practices,” noting ABC “can’t make hiring decisions based on protected characteristics, including gender and race,” under FCC’s EEO regulations.
“The evidence we have so far indicates potentially that Disney and ABC were making employment decisions based on race and gender, including having effectively race-defined affinity groups within the company. We have evidence that they put quotas in place based on specific demographics,” Carr said, in the Monday interview.
The Walt Disney Co. said on Friday it received Carr’s letter and will cooperate.
“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 The Hill last week.
The FCC last month launched a similar probe into Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal, over DEI concerns.
Letters that Carr sent to both companies note the FCC wants to ensure that the companies “are not promoting invidious forms of discrimination.”
Since President Trump took office in January, his administration has pushed to curb DEI efforts that swelled in government and private businesses in recent years. He signed executive orders to end DEI programs across federal agencies and pull federal funding from recipients, including colleges, that promote DEI.
In his letter to Disney, Carr wrote that the FCC’s enforcement arm would follow up with the company, which he suggested may have altered names of its DEI initiatives without changing policies.
The Hill reached out to ABC and Disney for comment.