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Disney Goes To War

In an extraordinary lawsuit, the Josh D’Amaro-led company accused the federal government of serious First Amendment violations and warned that if it loses, “the press could in no way be described as free.”

Oliver Darcy
Oliver Darcy

Aug 19, 2026

Disney Goes To War

Disney Goes To War

In an extraordinary lawsuit, the Josh D’Amaro-led company accused the federal government of serious First Amendment violations and warned that if it loses, “the press could in no way be described as free.”

Oliver Darcy
Oliver Darcy

Aug 19, 2026

Disney Goes To War

For more than a year, Disney executives have tried to find an offramp with Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission. When the agency, led by Trump's handpicked chairman Brendan Carr, first sent a letter of inquiry last year notifying the entertainment conglomerate that it had opened a probe into whether its D.E.I. policies violated laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace, Disney opted to comply. In fact, despite the FCC's unprecedented requests for records, the company produced more than 13,000 pages of documents—even though, as it noted Tuesday, it "objected to the scope and burden of the FCC’s sweeping demands."

It was evident to Disney executives all along that Carr's probe into the company was about much more than its D.E.I. policies. A person familiar with the Josh D’Amaro-led company’s thinking told Status…

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Authors

Oliver Darcy

Jon Passantino

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Status is the definitive nightly briefing that cuts through the noise to inform readers about what is really happening in the corridors of media power.

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