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Donald Trump’s handpicked appointee sitting atop the Federal Communications Commission declared Friday that his agency is prepared to block mergers and attempted acquisitions involving companies that promote what he called “invidious” diversity policies.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr openly said: “Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination.” The outlet also quoted him as saying: “If there’s businesses out there that are still promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination, I really don’t see a path forward where the FCC could reach the conclusion that approving the transaction is going to be in the public interest.”
According to the report, Carr specifically mentioned Paramount Global’s merger with Skydance Media as well as Verizon Communications Inc.’s acquisition of Frontier Communications Parent Inc. as deals that are potentially in doubt as a result.
In reality, DEI programs help foster work environments that studies have shown are more productive than ones where diversity, equity and inclusion aren’t emphasized. But the MAGA movement has falsely portrayed these programs, which vary and have been known to benefit all kinds of races, genders, religions and socioeconomic classes, as discriminatory toward white men.
In Carr’s threat, we see the Trump administration flexing its authoritarian powers in an attempt to subjugate American media outlets in ways that Hungary’s illiberal leader, Viktor Orbán, advised Republicans to do back in 2022. And it’s entirely possible that media companies bow to the White House on this and dismantle their diversity programs, given how other companies have already caved on this front.
A discussion of whether a media merger is allowed might seem a little irrelevant to people who don’t work in the field. But the diversity of the people who work for American media companies, which are responsible for distributing information and entertainment to the masses, can have a large impact on broader society.
In recent years, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, has promoted two Government Accountability Office reports that use data to make the argument that a lack of Latino representation in media has helped fuel bigoted stereotypes about the Latino community. And we’ve seen how stereotypes in media and television can afflict people of other races and religions, including Black people and Muslims, as well.
If Trump’s administration can get media companies — many of which have fallen woefully short in fostering diverse workplaces — to renounce the efforts they already have put forth to improve, we could see a media environment more hostile to racial, gender and LGBTQ-related inclusivity than any in recent memory.
I’ll also note, in closing, that MSNBC could be in the administration’s crosshairs as well. The network is in the process of being spun off from its parent company, Comcast, and Trump has frequently fumed at MSNBC. Last week, he falsely called critical coverage of him on the network “illegal,” and on Friday in the Oval Office, he said he thought CNN and MSNBC are “going to be turned off,” a claim he attributed to ratings but which seemed to blur the line between an aspiration and a thinly veiled order.