Paramount Global told its employees this week that it\u2019s ending numerous diversity, equity and inclusion policies, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.<\/p>\n
In the memo sent to employees Wednesday, Paramount said it would <\/strong>comply with President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order banning the practice in the federal government and demanding that agencies investigate private companies over their DEI programs.<\/p>\n Co-CEOs George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins cited the executive order in the memo, as well as the Supreme Court and federal mandates, as the impetus for the media giant\u2019s policy changes.<\/p>\n Among the changes, the company said it \u201cwill no longer set or use aspirational numerical goals related to the race, ethnicity, sex or gender of hires.\u201d Paramount also said it ended its policy of collecting such stats for its U.S. job applicants on forms and career pages, except in the markets where it\u2019s legally required to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be the best storytellers and to continue to drive success, we must have a highly talented, dedicated\u202fand creative workforce that reflects\u202fthe perspectives and experiences of\u202four many different audiences. Values like inclusivity and collaboration are a part of the Paramount culture and will continue to be,\u201d the co-CEOs wrote in the memo.<\/p>\n They added that they will continue to evaluate their policies and seek talent from all backgrounds.<\/p>\n Paramount has taken part in a number of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. It donated millions to racial justice causes in 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd and has touted initiatives such as a supplier diversity program and Content for Change, a campaign to overhaul storytelling about racial equity and mental health. The company has hosted an annual Inclusion Week for years and maintains an Office of Global Inclusion.<\/p>\n \u201cDiversity, equity and inclusion is fundamental to our business,\u201d former CEO Bob Bakish said at Paramount\u2019s 2023 Inclusion Week, according to The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n Paramount joins companies like Walmart, Target and Amazon in rolling back their DEI goals and policies in recent months. Others, like Apple and Costco, have publicly defended and committed to their DEI stances, even as the Trump administration has escalated its attacks on the practices.<\/p>\n Media companies have taken a variety of steps to respond to the Trump administration\u2019s policy changes since the president\u2019s inauguration last month.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Disney changed its DEI programs, which included updating performance factors and rebranding initiatives and employee resource groups, among other things.<\/p>\n Around the same time, public broadcaster PBS \u2014 which, as a recipient of federal funding, is more directly affected by Trump\u2019s order than corporations are \u2014 <\/strong>said it would shut down its DEI office. CNBC reported that DEI employees would exit the company in order for it to <\/strong>stay in compliance with Trump\u2019s executive order.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission began investigating Comcast over its DEI efforts. Trump\u2019s executive order, signed on his first day in office, directs federal agencies to identify and probe \u201cmost egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners\u201d in their sectors. Comcast previously said in a statement it would cooperate with the investigation.<\/p>\n Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paramount Global told its employees this week that it\u2019s ending numerous diversity, equity and inclusion policies,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecapitalharbor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}