Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is working to implement President Donald Trump's agenda at the agency.
Carr told Punchbowl News he plans on sending a letter to Disney to probe the company's diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Carr said the company's DEI program may violate the FCC's equal employment opportunity requirements for licensees.
"To all businesses regulated by the FCC, I suggest that they get busy ending their promotion of DEI," Carr has said, vowing to block any merger if a company engages in DEI initiatives.
Last month, Carr opened an investigation into DEI programs at Verizon and Comcast. His move to block mergers and acquisitions could threaten major deals in the communications sector, including Paramount Global's merger with Skydance Media and Verizon's acquisition of Frontier Communications, per Bloomberg.
"We can only under the statute move forward and approve a transaction if we find that doing so serves the public interest," Carr said to Bloomberg.
Carr said he is investigating NPR and PBS for airing commercials and is looking into previously dismissed complaints against CBS, NBC and ABC over their coverage of the 2024 presidential election. Carr told Punchbowl he will be "even-handed" in his approach.
In his tenure as chair, Carr approved Starlink's proposal of direct-to-cell service with T-Mobile over the opposition of Verizon and AT&T, Punchbowl reported. Starlink is owned by tech mogul Elon Musk, who also oversees the Department of Government Efficiency.
Carr dismissed claims he was giving an unfair advantage to Musk's company, noting partnerships between Globalstar and Apple and Amazon's Project Kuiper, Punchbowl reported.
"That's a really good, robust amount of competition given where we are in terms of the emergence of space services," Carr said to Punchbowl.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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