Taxpayer-supported PBS mourned success by conservatives on Wednesday's News Hour in pushing back with consumer activism against the flagrantly dishonest "diversity-equity-inclusion" drives in corporate America. PBS used the term "conservative" six times, but never found an ideological label for the Left. They were "pro-DEI folks" pushing "diversity initiatives" for people like "trans workers at Tractor Supply."
Anchor Geoff Bennett summarized the bias in the introduction: "Diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs are under attack by conservative lawmakers and activists. From college campuses, to corporate America, the fear of legal liability and political backlash is leading some to backtrack or rebrand their diversity initiatives."
His expert journalist on this "backlash" was Simone Foxman of Bloomberg News -- you know, the "news" organization of a billionaire liberal former mayor of New York City. We can guess Michael Bloomberg is one of the "pro-DEI folks." Foxman said these programs ramped up after the death of George Floyd (and the rioting aftermath). It's part of "this woke/anti-woke culture war idea."
Liberal journalists always argue or imply that a "culture war" has broken out when the conservatives are actively resisting. Pushing BLM or LGBTQ or whatever is never a "culture war" when the Left is winning, only when it's losing. In this case, the winner is Robby Starbuck:
SIMONE FOXMAN: So these companies have all been targeted by a social media influencer by the name of Robby Starbuck.
And unlike other conservative activists, Robby Starbuck, he's not a lawyer. He's just the guy online who is bringing attention to what he calls woke policies at retailers or at companies that have a lot of consumer interest, where he believes those consumers don't want the companies to be adopting those policies.
For example, if you go out into Middle America and very rural communities, you're likely to find a higher number of more conservative people that might not be as interested in seeing trans workers at Tractor Supply, say, being provided with health care. [!]
So he's essentially trying to blend the potential conservative impulses of certain groups of people with what their corporate policies are doing and say, hey, there's a disconnect here. And he's been extremely effective.
Nobody at PBS blinks when you imply conservatives think "trans workers" should be denied all "health care," like you'd block them from getting loaded into an ambulance. She's referring to "gender-affirming care" like mutilation surgeries, but liberals can never be explicit on that count.
Bennett worried out loud: "white men still control about 60 percent of the top leadership roles, while making up about 30 percent of the U.S. workforce. That's according to federal workplace data. So that raises two questions. One is the concern among these conservative activists misplaced? But the question I will put to you is, are these DEI initiatives actually working?"
Foxman replied that white women have been the biggest beneficiaries so far, but "I think it's about 9 percent of senior leadership roles are now held by people — by Black people, where they make up 14 percent of the population."
She suggested there are three groups of people in this debate: the "pro-DEI folks, the people who "respect" diversity but don't feel the need for an activist crusade on it, and then the right-wing Robby Starbuck types: "And then you probably have a group of people who say, well, we're white men or we're white people and we want to hold on to our — the power that we have in this society."
It's blatantly obvious that "anti-DEI folks" have no power inside PBS, despite paying to support it. Bennett could have interviewed Starbuck himself and tried to suggest he's a white supremacist to his face.
