Comcast is the latest target of the Federal Communications Commission’s new chairman, Brendan Carr, who has decided to go after the company over its DEI programs. DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and refers to initiatives with the purpose of hiring and supporting employees from underrepresented backgrounds.
The Verge reported Wednesday that Carr asked his own agency to investigate Comcast’s DEI practices, though a source told Gizmodo the action was taken unilaterally without the rest of the commission consenting. “We have received an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission and will be cooperating with the FCC to answer their questions,” a spokesperson for Comcast told the news outlet. What happened to free markets and small government?
President Trump recently signed an executive order targeting DEI, directing the Attorney General to “identify private sector companies with ‘egregious and discriminatory’ DEI programs.” Carr is using that executive order to go after Comcast. “I expect that this investigation into Comcast and its NBCUniversal operations will aid the commission’s broader efforts to root out invidious forms of DEI discrimination across all of the sectors the FCC regulates.”
DEI has been a target of Republicans for a long time, who say the programs are virtue signaling and disadvantage Caucasian people. Supporters of DEI initiatives argue that a diverse workforce produces better business outcomes, as companies can make products that appeal to all demographics and incorporate a broader range of experience. Apple, Costco, and the NFL are among the organizations that have retained their DEI programs despite President Trump’s crusade against the practice.
Carr has also recently gone after CBS over an interview it aired last year with then-Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. He launched an investigation into the broadcast station after President Trump sued the outlet, saying that a commercial it aired promoting the interview was misleading. Because the FCC oversees broadcast licenses, its threats are not entirely toothless. Carr has tried to argue that CBS misleadingly edited a fact-based news report, which could lead to some penalty. The CBS interview was simply condensed for time, however, as commercials are short and her answer to a question had to fit into a 30-second spot. Legal experts largely believe that President Trump and the FCC have no standing to go after CBS on First Amendment grounds.
Even if investigations and legal threats prove fruitless, the pressure President Trump has placed on businesses and government organizations to change their practices has been enough to achieve his aims. Companies from Meta to Amazon have preemptively abandoned their DEI efforts following his re-election. Paramount, the owner of CBS, has reportedly discussed settling with Trump rather than going to trial as it hopes to complete a merger with Skydance, which would need the approval of Trump’s Justice Department. This is Trump’s world now, and we are just living in it.
Ironically, while critics of DEI often say it leads to people being hired who otherwise are unqualified for the roles, company leaders often hire from their own social networks. When Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook, he hired friends from Harvard, for instance. Were those really hires based solely on ability? Similarly, the Silicon Valley investment firm Andreessen Horowitz recently hired Daniel Penny, the former Marine who was acquitted after choking to death an unhoused person on the NYC Metro. Penny does not have any relevant experience, but Andreessen Horowitz says it will “teach him” the skills of investing. At least in that case, Andreessen Horowitz is fine with DEI practices.
Even supporters of DEI have said that companies like Meta and Google were simply window dressing with their respective programs. But the fact they dropped them so quickly after Trump’s reelection speaks volumes about why they made the moves. Maybe they never liked having DEI programs in the first place, but they certainly did not want to deal with four years of assault from President Trump.