FCC chair announces investigation of Disney, ABC for going ‘all in on DEI’

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr has announced his intention to investigate The Walt Disney Company and ABC over their embrace of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Carr made the announcement in a letter sent on Thursday to Disney CEO Robert Iger and also published online at Twitter/X.

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

In recent years, Disney made DEI a key priority, embedding explicit race- and gender-based criteria across its operations.

Indeed, public reports—including
ones based on whistleblower documents—paint a disturbing picture of Disney’s DEI practices.https://t.co/nBH76baDg7

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) March 29, 2025

“I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Disney and ABC,” the letter begins.

“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. While I have seen reports that Disney recently walked back some of its DEI programs, significant concerns remain,” the letter continues.

ABC is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Both it and its parent company have in recent years gone full-bore on DEI, even as their earnings have dwindled because of the American people’s distaste for the hateful, discriminatory ideology.

The share of Americans with a favorable impression of Disney has collapsed from 77% last year to just 33% today. This is catastrophic reputational damage—and a warning to other companies about the cost of going woke.

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 16, 2022

“Numerous reports indicate that Disney’s leadership went all in on invidious forms of DEI discrimination a few years ago and apparently did so in a manner that infected many aspects of your company’s decisions,” Carr’s letter goes on.

“As you may know, the Communications Act and Commission rules prohibit regulated entities like Disney’s ABC from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, or gender. Indeed, the FCC’s longstanding equal employment opportunity or EEO rules set forth specific requirements to which Disney’s regulated operations must adhere,” it continues.

As recently as about a week ago, Disney stockholders voted to maintain one of Disney’s core DEI initiatives, namely its involvement in the so-called Corporate Equality Index (CEI).

“The index, published each year by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, has become a popular tool over the past two decades for companies to assess their inclusion of people who identify as LGBTQ,” according to Yahoo News.

“The system, which grew from 319 corporate participants in 2002 to 1,449 in 2025, evaluates companies on a scale of 0% to 100%, taking into account their workforce LGBTQ protections, benefits, culture and social responsibility, and behavior toward the community,” the reporting continues.

But DEI opponents would ask why the LGBT community deserves all this special attention. What about other communities — why are they effectively being discriminated against?

SCOOP: Disney corporate president Karey Burke says, “as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child,” she supports having “many, many, many LGBTQIA characters in our stories” and wants a minimum of 50 percent of characters to be LGBTQIA and racial minorities. pic.twitter.com/oFRUiuu9JG

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022

For the 14th consecutive year, The Walt Disney Company has earned a perfect score of 100 on the 2020 Corporate Equality Index: https://t.co/l2SN2kLTcR pic.twitter.com/PJmY1doUMN

— The Walt Disney Company (@WaltDisneyCo) January 22, 2020

However, in fairness to Disney, earlier this year its chief human resources officer, Sonia Coleman, announced that the company would finally be somewhat shifting away from DEI to prioritize its business goals.

“Disney is getting rid of its controversial Reimagine Tomorrow initiative, and the corresponding website, which was used to highlight stories and talent from underrepresented communities,” Axios reported at the time.

“The site, which came under fire from conservatives, was replaced externally in December by an updated hub on Disney’s corporate website, and also on Disney’s internal website,” the reporting continued.

Disney also stopped evaluating executives based on how well they’d implemented DEI.

“Beginning this fiscal year, Disney will replace the ‘Diversity & Inclusion’ performance factor that it used to evaluate executive compensation with a new ‘Talent Strategy,’” Axios reported. “The new ‘Talent Strategy’ factor includes concepts from its old ‘Diversity & Inclusion’ factor, but is more focused on how values drive business success.”

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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