Carr's threat is a stretch. The FCC is empowered to enforce equal employment opportunity rules on radio and TV stations, but targeting Disney's DEI practices via its authority over ABC—one of Disney's numerous subsidiary companies —gives the impression that Carr is simply reaching for whatever means he can.

The FCC said it would look into Disney's DEI practices, raising questions about the future of creative content and who gets to make it.

In that letter, Carr accused Disney’s broadcast network ABC of “attempting to extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations under the threat of terminating long-held affiliations, which could result in blackouts and other harms to local consumers of broadcast news and content.”