FCC to probe Disney over DEI practices: Going to get to the bottom of everything

DIsney is reportedly in the crosshairs of the Federal Communications Commission over its controversial diversity, equity and inclusion policies as the federal agency continues a clampdown on the “woke” initiatives.FCC chair Brendan Carr said he’s putting the “finishing touches” on a letter to the Mouse House, which has been criticized for its DEI efforts, according to an interview he gave to Punchbowl News.Carr declined to reveal which specific policies he would probe but said that the letter would include similar concerns that he recently raised with Comcast and Verizon.He added that he was concerned with “whether they’re engaged in any of this sort of DEI discrimination that could run afoul of our EEO [equal employment opportunity] rules or potentially our public interest standard.” “We’re going to get to the bottom of everything that is ongoing here and stay tuned on that one,” he said during Thursday’s sitdown.Disney and the FCC did not immediately return requests for comment.

Disney shares were down more than 2% on Friday.The stock has tanked nearly 17% in the past year and 9% year to date.The move comes after Carr penned a letter to Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger in December, warning him that he would be monitoring the media giant’s carriage negotiations with local broadcast TV stations.In that letter, Carr accused Disney’s broadcast network 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 distorion” complaint against ABC affiliate WPVI-TV over the network’s fact-checking of Donald Trump during a presidential debate.During the Punchbowl interview, Carr also echoed his previous threat to block mergers & acquisition for any company that embraces DEI policies.“Any company t...