In a shocking display of a principle that no one (who has not graduated from middle school) could have seen coming, Disney’s blatant efforts to placate the recent bullying it’s gotten from the Trump administration have only beget more bullying. It’s almost like, having rolled over on its back to expose its soft white belly—helpfully pointing out the most kickable portions, and paying Trump and his cronies so they can acquire bigger boots—the entertainment giant has somehow set itself up to receive harder and nastier kicks. Who could have guessed?
Said tum-punting comes from one of Trump’s favorite attack weevils, FCC chair Brendan Carr, who announced today that the organization he heads is formally launching an investigation into Disney’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. Sure, Carr’s lengthy letter announcing the move acknowledged, Disney has said it’ll walk back on DEI. But is it capitulating hard or fast enough? It’s not enough to get down and lick boot, after all: You’ve got to really slobber that sucker up.
Carr lobbed his threats at Disney in the form of a public letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger, announcing that the FCC will be launching an investigation into the company’s practices. And before we get into the substance of the letter, can we just say? Big ups to whoever taught Carr the word “invidious”—”of an unpleasant or objectionable nature”—which he manages to use three times in the letter (and another in the tweet), always as a descriptor for DEI practices. Big day for all our invidious heads out there.
As to that substance, it attacks Disney both on what it’s doing now, and what it’s done in the past, making it clear that simply rolling back DEI policies—which include such horrifying ideas as setting standards that half the regular and recurring characters on ABC shows be drawn from underrepresented groups, or, god forbid, the company try not to just hire white people for everything—won’t be enough. “Although your company recently made some changes to how it brands certain efforts,” Carr wrote, “It is not clear that the underlying policies have changed in a fundamental manner—nor that past practices complied with relevant FCC regulations.” (Carr, a lawyer, is careful to make it clear that this is a legally sanctioned DEI witch hunt, citing the FCC’s equal employment opportunity rules.) The message is clear: “We’re gonna hit you for what you were doing, regardless, but how hard might still be up to you.”
Carr ends the letter with the more explicit threat shit, noting that, “In order to aid the FCC’s investigation into these matters, the Comission’s Enforcement Bureau will be engaging with your company to obtain an accounting of Disney and ABC’s DEI programs, policies, and practices.” Which raises a fun philosophical question, somewhere on the lines of “What is the point to giving a bully your lunch money if all it teaches him is that you’re a plentiful source of Doritos cash?” Disney employees and shareholders have already made some grumblings about Iger and his top-brass ilk’s willingness to roll over for Trump on certain points; if Carr is making it clear that he’s going to go after the company regardless, what becomes the point of all that hard work capitulating in the first place?
[via The Wrap]
