FCC head seeks investigation of NBCUniversal over DEI efforts

The head of the Federal Communications Commission said he is seeking an investigation of NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast over the firm’s corporate diversity initiatives.

In a post on X, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he is concerned the companies “may be promoting invidious forms of DEI that do not comply with FCC regulations & civil rights laws.”

Carr — who, since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, has been wielding his agency’s power over broadcasters to a degree that has no modern precedent — said diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies are “by their very definition, odious to a free people whose institutions are founded on a commitment to equality.”

In A Feb. 11 letter to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, posted online by Carr, the FCC chairman points to Comcast’s corporate website, which lists diversity, equity and inclusion as “a core value of our business.” Carr also cites public reports of DEI days and DEI training as part of what the letter calls “an entire ‘DEI infrastructure” in the entertainment company.

Carr said the inclusion efforts amount to discrimination, which, he says, “cannot be squared with any reasonable interpretation of federal law” and “can only deprive Americans of their rights to fair and equal treatment under the law.”

The FCC has long held radio and television stations to a robust set of Equal Employment Opportunity rules, which Carr says he is now using as the basis for his investigation. Last year, over Carr’s objection, the Biden administration’s FCC moved to reinstate regulations that would force broadcasters to publicly disclose data on the race, gender and ethnicity of their employees. Those rules are now being challenged in court.

In addition to the NBC-owned television stations, Carr’s letter notes a wide range of Comcast’s businesses fall under his agency’s jurisdiction, ranging from cable and internet to wireless service. Carr says that’s one reason he’s targeting Comcast first — to serve as a shot across the bow of the entire communications industry.

“I expect that every entity the FCC regulates will be complying with our civil rights laws,” Carr said in his X post.

Democratic FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks — one of two Democrats on the panel — said he is not on board with the investigation.

“Then-Commissioner Carr blasted the prior administration for acting in a way that ‘gives the FCC a nearly limitless power to veto private sector decisions,'” Starks said in a statement. “From what I know, this enforcement action is out of our lane and out of our reach. I have asked for a briefing to understand the Enforcement Bureau’s theory of the case, the authority relied upon, and any prior precedent. This action gives me grave concern.”

In a statement provided to ABC News, a Comcast spokesperson said, “We have received an inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission and will be cooperating with the FCC to answer their questions. For decades, our company has been built on a foundation of integrity and respect for all of our employees and customers.”

Since taking office, Trump has taken aim at DEI efforts, signing an executive order to disband such programs in the federal government and cracking down on DEI initiatives in programs that receive federal funding.

Last week, Carr confirmed his agency was investigating a local radio news report in San Francisco that included depictions of ICE raids in Northern California. And in what he depicted as an effort to enhance transparency in an ongoing complaint against CBS alleging “news distortion, Carr opened the matter to public comment and directed the posting of raw outtakes from an interview Kamala Harris gave to CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

That controversy was sparked last October by CBS’s use of two different answers by Harris to the same question from Whitaker — in a preview clip that aired on Face the Nation and the interview as it aired in full on 60 Minutes that night. A right-wing group known as the Center for American Rights filed a complaint, alleging violations of the FCC’s news distortion policy, a rarely-enforced doctrine that dates to the late 1960s which was designed to prohibit hoaxes and the staging of news events.