Following the recent US election, which saw Donald Trump return as the President, there has been a drastic shift not just in politics around the world, but also in how corporations like Disney are adapting to this change.

Brendan Carr, who was made the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has been tasked with sorting out the major corporations Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, with him only last month announcing he was going to start an investigation into Comcast and Verizon.

Now it looks like Disney is next on his hitlist, as Brendan has said during an appearance on Punchbowl News that he will likely start looking into Disney’s DEI practices and is “putting the finishing touches” on a letter to the company announcing his efforts.

Recently, it was announced that the FCC might block any deal involving a company that promotes DEI, such as the upcoming merger between Skydance and Paramount.  And just earlier this year, Carr sent a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger warning him that he was monitoring the company’s carriage negotiations with local broadcast TV stations.

“Any company that wants to get a transaction approved by the FCC, we have to make a finding that approving the transaction will serve the public interest. I have a hard time seeing a path forward for a company that’s promoting these invidious forms of DEI discrimination for the FCC to get a yes.  And so what I’ve suggested to regulated companies — not just ones that are looking to do deals before the FCC but all businesses regulated by the FCC — is I suggest that they get busy ending their promotion of DEI.”

At the time, he accused 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.”    This could also be a potential problem for the merger of Fubo TV and Disney’s Hulu+Live TV business.

Shortly after the November election, Disney quickly settled with Donald Trump over a defamation lawsuit against ABC News for $15 million.   Donald Trump also regularly calls out the mainstream media as being enemies of the Republicans, especially ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, who Donald gave the nickname, George Slopadopolus.

Disney has had many political problems over the past few years, such as when the company got into a culture war with the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the “Don’t Say Gay Bill”, resulting in Disney losing many special rights it had in the state.  There’s also been many other problems for Disney with some of its programming not clicking with audiences due with box office disasters like “Lightyear”, “Strange World”, “Snow White”,  “The Little Mermaid”, “The Marvels” and “Captain America: Brave New World”, along with poor viewership of Disney+ shows like “The Acolyte”, following these projects being labeled as “woke”.

Many of the biggest corporations have been rolling back their DEI programs, with Disney has also been making major changes to its policies such as ending its “Reimagine Tomorrow” initiative, which promoted stories from underrepresented groups.  It has also been making some changes to content warnings on older films on Disney+, along with taking out some controversial storylines in animated shows such as “Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur” and “Win Or Lose”.

Earlier this month at the Disney Annual Shareholder meeting, Disney shareholders rejected a proposal to end Disney’s involvement in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which is a survey that measures corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. 

Disney CEO Bob Iger has also tried to navigate Disney out of the political storm on many occasions, trying to return the company to the middle, with decisions on its content now focusing on a good story over messaging.  However, it still had a few projects like “Snow White” that have been in development for many years and that are still released, though with some changes, such as drastically shifting strategies for the film’s launch.

Roger’s Take:  There’s little doubt that there has been a drastic shift in policy at the top of the US government, and the major corporations are looking to stay out of the way.   I do wonder if the recent news about Disney shareholders rejecting the proposal might have caught Carr’s attention, but I also think he’s likely going to be threatening most of the major corporations in order to make them fall in line.  I’m also expecting some more changes to happen within Disney, possibly with small changes like removing some of the collections within Disney+, such as Pride or Black Stories, which could be seen as a DEI program.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if Disney closes down some of its studios like Onyx Collective, which curates globally entertaining stories by creators of color and underrepresented voices, all with a culturally specific point of view. Disney doesn’t want to get into another political storm and has been doing everything it can to try to keep everyone happy, so expect to see further changes in policies at the company in the months to come, to stay out of the view of the government, while also trying not to alienate customers.   With Disney owning ABC News, it’s going to find balancing the line much harder over the next four years and it’ll be interesting to see if Disney pushes back or not.

What do you think of this situation?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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