Summary:
The Federal Communications Commission has alerted the Walt Disney Company and its ABC unit that it will begin an investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the media giant.
The FCC, the agency that regulates the media and telecommunications industry, said in a letter dated Friday that it wants to “ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”
“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 CNBC.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was recently appointed by President Donald Trump, began a similar investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal in early February. The inquiry comes after Trump signed an executive order looking to end DEI practices at U.S. corporations in January. The order calls for each federal agency to “identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations” among publicly traded companies, as well as nonprofits and other institutions.
Can’t wait to see how Disney’s lawyers wipe the floor with them, like they did with DeSantis
If they bend over for them, I will be pissed.
I’m betting they’re more likely to see this through. If you aren’t already familiar, check out the dispute between Disney and Desantis.
I get where you’re coming from, but this argument doesn’t really work any more.
Disney fought DeSantis because the rule of law largely still existed and open extortion wasn’t ruling the day. The idea that a President could openly extort law firms, media conglomerates, the ultra-rich, and even other countries with complete and total impunity was laughable. Not even Trump would be that brazen. And even in a battle of a state government vs. a multibillion dollar corporation, the courtroom was at least a level playing field.
But that was so 4 years ago. Times have changed. Jeff Bezos bent the knee. Multiple billion-dollar law firms have bent the knee. All three big networks (NBC, CBS, ABC) have all bent the knee. Several universities have bent the knee. Countries like Canada were even willing to dedicate billions of dollars to appease Trump rather than incur his wrath.
It’s one thing when you have a war chest the size of Disney and are willing to fight through a court system where they had a fair shot. But Trump and the US government are one of the few entities that have an even bigger war chest than Disney could ever dream of, the backing of the US government, and a court system that has repeatedly shown to be willing to kowtow to Trump.
Doesn’t matter how big Disney’s war chest is if they have to battle through a rigged MAGA court system where the outcome is about as pre-determined as a pro wrestling match. And if Disney realizes this, they’ll probably offer to settle with Trump very quickly. This is not a battle that Disney can win if Trump is that determined. Trump simply has a much bigger war chest and many, many more tools at his disposal that Disney has no answer for.
This is exactly what I’m afraid of.
Yes. Pick up Disney and all their money and power and plop them down in the corrupt kleptocracy/oligarchy that is Russia and see how that goes.
That’s kind of the way I see it happening here now that donvict and his wrecking crew are in office. I expect Disney will be offering up some magafied bullshit as a concession in short order.
This, after they are already being punished by the free market (duh, that’s how it is supposed to work) by pumping out dreck like Snow White and recent Star Wars projects. But that’s the actual people deciding. First step - don’t piss off your audience. They are going to decide whether they want to spend their money on your product. But now the qons want to step in and do all the deciding, I guess.
This ended with a win for DeSantis in an out of court settlement that included having some members of the Disney board being pushed out and replaced with DeSantis loyalists. So no, I doubt that Disney will see it through.
If you’re referencing Reedy Creek, it looks like Disney ultimately won after Desantis capitulated on who became charged with running the CTFOD
Yup, that’s the one. I’d hardly call that a win though.
I think a detante (the word the article uses) is a more appropriate word. Though given that they were on the defense, a detante looks better for them than it does for the aggressor.
I would not be surprised if they bend over.
These legal challenges are effectively bribes. The regime knows businesses would rather spend less money kowtowing than fighting a massive, nebulous lawsuit for years (with judges who are already in the their pocket, so you know which way they’ll rule regardless of evidence and arguments).
So all they have to do is toss out an executive order or lawsuit revoking funding, or revoking security clearances, or going after DEI policies. The natural conclusion, even to the target company, is that fighting would be more expensive and not even likely to result in a victory.
“Disney settles with the FCC for $500 million” is the headline you’ll read in June, which translates to “Disney paid Trump $500 million to leave them alone”.
mickey is gonna take on both muskrat and the diaper, but it won’t be to fight–it will be capitulation sealed with a three-way and a shower of money from the disney vault.
Lawsuits will not beat fascists.