With all the troubles plaguing California -- all the crime, drug demoralization, homelessness, job cuts, and terrible losses from wildfires -- the last thing a corporate entertainment giant in LA needs is to cling to ideological models and operational paradigms proven to have harmed the bottom line. But that is precisely what an outspoken group of Paramount employees insist the company do, as stated in an open letter to the execs that expresses shock and dismay over Paramount dropping the bulk of its debilitating Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies.
David Spector reports for FoxBusiness:
“Paramount employees are blasting the studio’s decision to roll back their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in a searing letter sent to the company’s co-CEOs, according to one report.”
As Spector notes, Paramount’s co-CEOs—George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins—dropped the DEI bombshell in a late February memo, “…ending their aspirational hiring goals with respect to race, gender and sexuality,” and citing President Trump’s executive order banning certain DEI practices as the catalyst.
Why cite the Trump policy?
The devil, as the saying goes, is in the details, and those details include a pending corporate sale that is at the mercy of federal agents.
“Paramount's DEI changes come as the company finds itself under FCC scrutiny regarding its $8 billion merger with independent studio Skydance.”
In other words, they appear to be responding to FCC pressure -- to political pressure.
Regardless of whether one sees a personally preferred response, this shadow of government power is ominous, and stands out as a towering lesson that should not be forgotten.
The corporation is keeping its vague “commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace,” but the days of setting “aspirational numerical goals” tied to race, ethnicity, sex, or gender in hiring are over. No more quotas dressed up as progress, at least not officially. Paramount also has axed mandatory DEI training sessions and shut down internal “Business Resource Groups” that sliced the workforce into identity-based cliques.
As a result, one can see that this move is a mixed bag. It comes as a likely result of unwarranted federal interference in free enterprise, and it sees policy changes many conservatives might like, but many leftists might find reprehensible.
And those dissenters are not remaining silent.
A group of Paramount staffers—reports suggest dozens, though exact numbers are murkier than a bad film plotline—penned a scathing letter to the brass, accusing them of caving to the political pressure, and calling the decision a payoff to “mob bosses”—a not-so-subtle jab at the Trump administration’s anti-DEI crusade. These employees argue that dismantling the policies guts the company’s moral core and alienates its diverse talent pool. One can almost hear the cries of “systemic injustice” echoing through the Paramount lot.
Having walked across that lot more times than I can count (I was a Writer’s Guild Fellow in the Script Department of “Star Trek: Voyager,” circa 1998), I should say that the woke path many studios have trod when it comes to their hiring policies has revealed itself in creative output to the detriment of sales and societal interest. Merit in the field of “writing meets production” is based on how well the product – in this case, a television show or movie – is embraced by potential consumers. There are myriad possible target audiences, but there also are certain common elements of entertainment that most audience subgroups prefer.
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One of them is the ability to suspend disbelief, rather than sense the presences of a board room or aggressive political agenda.
Based on their letter to the CEOs, this is something the wokesters at Paramount do not understand, and thus, they wrote:
"How, in good conscience, can we continue to market to our global audiences and profit from their cultural contributions, while erasing our own internal commitments to equity for and inclusion of those audiences? How can we continue to attract talent with promises that are walked back the moment they become inconvenient?”
You can market to a global audience, Paramount team, by writing and producing entertainment that is interesting, exciting, meaningful, and not insulting or preachy or so politically charged that all the audience can do is think of the suits behind the production.
You can attract talent by actually focusing on talent, not skin color or sexual preference or adherence to the sacrament of the Climate Cult or Cultural Marxism.
Talent responds to incentives, and talented people do not have an incentive to work in a super-charged leftist pressure-cooker that has a history of subtle and overt political ostracism targeted against people who believe in individual liberty and good storytelling.
The Paramount controversy offers observers two critical lessons.
First, one can acknowledge the problem of potential government pressure – on anyone – to act in a certain way, regardless of the outcome.
Second, for the letter-writers, DEI isn’t just policy—it’s gospel. They see its dismantling as a personal affront, a signal that Paramount is bowing to the “wrong” side of history. Never mind that companies like Walmart, PepsiCo, and McDonald’s have also scaled back DEI under similar pressure—facts don’t soothe the stung. The letter’s tone, dripping with indignation, suggests a workforce so steeped in identity politics they would rather see more box-office failures than adapt.
Like most entertainment behemoths, the Paramount Mountain has been shaken, and the sound of a rockslide is rising.
Having worked there, this has not been pretty for me to see. I welcome changes that might bring about more valuable entertainment, but seeing it come in response to political pressure is vexing and alarming.