Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr on Thursday opened a probe into diversity practices at Verizon and raised the telecommunications company’s ongoing effort to buy Frontier Communications.
Carr, a Republican designated by President Donald Trump last month, earlier this month told NBC News-parent Comcast he was opening an analogous probe into the corporate’s promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Verizon is awaiting FCC approval for its $9.6 billion purchase of Frontier.
“With the intention to aid the FCC’s resolution of those matters, please reach out to the agency personnel which have been working on Verizon’s pending transactions on the FCC,” Carr wrote. “They’re the FCC personnel most accustomed to Verizon’s operations resulting from their merger review activity.”
Carr criticized Verizon for its continued promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Verizon said in an announcement, “we’re aware of the chairman’s concerns. We look ahead to engaging with the FCC staff on this issue. Verizon has all the time focused on having the very best talent to deliver the very best experiences to our customers.”
Carr said in his letter to Comcast earlier this month that the commission would take “fresh motion to be sure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined within the Communications Act… including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious types of DEI.”
Shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, Trump — who designated Carr as chair — issued sweeping executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the USA and pressured the private sector to affix the initiative.
Carr is investigating quite a few media corporations.
The FCC is reviewing whether a CBS News “60 Minutes” interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris violates “news distortion” rules.
Paramount is searching for FCC approval for an $8.4-billion merger with Skydance Media.
In January, Carr reinstated complaints about how Walt Disney’s ABC News moderated the pre-election TV debate between then-President Joe Biden and Trump and NBC letting Harris appear on “Saturday Night Live” before the election.
The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks.
