BET's parent companies Paramount, MTV, and The Paramount Film Studio said Wednesday that they are rethinking their approach to diversity, equity and inclusion amid a wider backlash against the DEI policy promoted by the Trump administration.
In a memo to employees obtained by the New York Times, Paramount's co-director said he is making changes to the company's DEI policy to comply with the Trump administration's efforts to eliminate federal and private-sector diversity programs.
The administration's policies “need to change the way companies approach moving forward.”
Paramount is ending its practice of using ambitious employment goals related to race, ethnicity, gender and gender, a memo sent by co-Chief Executives Brian Robbins, George Cheek and Chris McCarthy said. The company will also stop collecting gender and diversity data for many US job seekers and eliminate the DEI component of employee incentive planning.
“With our business goals in mind, we continue to evaluate our programs and approaches, ensuring that we expand the openings to attract talent from all regions, backgrounds and perspectives,” the memo says. “That could mean expanding existing programs while ending others.”
With Paramount's declaration on Wednesday, it will be the latest company to rethink its approach to DEI since President Trump took office in January. Large companies such as Target, Walmart, Meta and Disney are making similar changes to their diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Paramount has a multi-billion-dollar merger pending review by the Federal Communications Commission, whose chairman, Brendan Carr, was critical of DEI's policies. In a letter to Comcast this month, Kerr said he is investigating such policies in the cable giant, turning to the elimination of “mysterious forms of discrimination” across the media sector.
Paramount has already begun scrubing DEI examples from a public statement. The DEI page with the header “Global Inclusion” has no mention of its early principles, and the company has removed the phrase from its annual financial statements. The archived version of Paramount's DEI website from May highlights the extent of the company's face.
“We embedded Dei into every aspect of our employee experience,” the page read. “Includes specific programs to enhance how we attract progress, develop, retain and measure.”
