Trump's FCC follows through on its pledge to investigate Disney for its DEI practices
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- Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, is now investigating Disney over its 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. Now add another company to the list: Disney.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger on Thursday saying that the regulator would open an investigation into the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
"In particular, I want to ensure that Disney and ABC have
not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination," Carr wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Business Insider.
Carr had earlier 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.
A Disney spokesperson said on Friday: "We are reviewing the Federal Communications Commission's letter, and we look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions."
The notice to Disney comes in a 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.