Disney Fires Top ABC News Executive Barbara Fedida For Racially Insensitive Remarks

By Joe Flint

Walt Disney Co. fired senior ABC News executive Barbara Fedida after an investigation confirmed allegations that she made insensitive and racist remarks about colleagues at the network.

In an email to staff, Peter Rice, the Disney senior executive with oversight of ABC News, said the investigation revealed that Ms. Fedida, the senior vice president of talent relations and business affairs for the unit, made "unacceptable racially insensitive comments" and managed "in a rough manner."

Ms. Fedida, who was one of the most powerful executives in television news, had been suspended by Disney in June after an article in the Huffington Post detailed some of her remarks, including alleged racial slurs about "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts. The network hired an outside law firm to investigate Ms. Fedida.

"Although Ms. Fedida made contributions to the organization over the 20-year span of her career, in light of the overall findings, we have determined that she can no longer serve in a leadership role and will not be returning to ABC News," Mr. Rice told staff.

Through a spokesman, Ms. Fedida declined to comment. When the accusations were first made she said, "throughout my career, I have been a champion for increased diversity in network news" and called the claims "heartbreaking and incredibly misleading."

In his memo, Mr. Rice, who serves as chairman of Walt Disney Television and co-chair of Disney Media Networks, also said the company has determined that Ms. Fedida's position had become too powerful and needed to be restructured.

"Going forward, business affairs will be a separate function from talent relations and recruitment, each with its own leader," Mr. Rice said. He added that the company understands "there is serious work that needs to be done to enhance the culture of inclusion and make further progress on our goal of attracting, fostering and retaining diverse talent."

Mr. Rice said, contrary to some published reports, the investigation found "no basis for the claims that Ms. Fedida was the subject of dozens of HR complaints and that ABC News spent millions of dollars in confidential settlements related to Ms. Fedida."

Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 20, 2020 18:24 ET (22:24 GMT)

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