Comcast Employees (& MSNBC Viewers) Would Benefit From More Viewpoint Diversity at Comcast

At Comcast's annual shareholder meeting on June 1, 2022, Free Enterprise Project Associate Ethan Peck presented Proposal 6, calling for Comcast to promise not to discriminate against conservatives and others with whom its leadership disagrees. His statement can be heard here and read below.

The board’s opposition to our proposal for more viewpoint diversity is in and of itself an example of Comcast’s obvious aversion to viewpoint diversity, further proving why our proposal is necessary and shareholders should support it.

In its statement opposing our proposal, the board lies blatantly about its support for diversity of thought. If the board really was inclusive of a wide range of views, then why exclude ours? We’re not requesting anything beyond the pale here – all our proposal requests is for Comcast’s own Equal Employment Opportunity policy to include genuine equal opportunity for diverse views.

The EEO policy states the following:

Comcast’s policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to, and prohibit discrimination against, all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity, transgender status, age, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, citizenship or immigration status, mental or physical disability, medical condition, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy or maternity, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, reproductive health decisions, or any other trait or status protected by applicable law.

Noticeably absent from that long list of uninteresting surface characteristics is the kind of diversity that is associated with character… and that is diversity of thought.

Furthermore, Comcast’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion policies actively discriminate against straight white men precisely in the way that the Equal Employment Opportunity policy is supposed to forbid.

DEI also explicitly violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in no uncertain terms, but that doesn’t stop Comcast, a company which pretends to be so diverse and inclusive and yet illegally discriminates against straight white men and alienates, silences, and excludes over half the country simply for holding right-of-center views.

The truth is that Comcast only has one hiring policy in practice – and that is… left-wingers only. Anyone who has watched MSNBC for more than 5 minutes would know that. Of course biased hiring produces biased news. And of course alienating half the country is bound to produce an unpopular product. It’s no wonder ratings are dwindling.

Fellow shareholders, it’s on our dime that Comcast is implementing these immoral and blatantly discriminatory policies. And in doing so, the company is stealing from us in plain sight because it is forgoing merit for political orthodoxy. By not hiring based on merit alone (which would naturally include diverse thought), the company is violating its fiduciary responsibility and is intentionally selling short its productivity and its future.

Comcast employees, shareholders, and news programs would all benefit from genuine diversity of thought. We’re not demanding that right-of-center prospective employees get a seat at the table – just requesting that they get the same equal opportunities that left-of-center prospective employees get. Anyone who would oppose such a simple, straightforward request for equal opportunity for diverse views – like the board did in opposing this proposal – is by definition politically orthodox and devoted to ideological hegemony.

As this proposal is designed to include all political persuasions, we encourage shareholders of all political persuasions to support this request for equal opportunity by voting for proposal 6.

For more information, see
https://nationalcenter.org/ncppr/2022/05/31/walmart-and-comcast-investors-urged-to-oppose-corporate-discrimination/
and
http://nationalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Comcast-2022-Shareholder-Meeting-Statement.pdf