Following an administrative leave that began in June, ABC News has fired Barbara Fedida, Senior Vice President of Talent & Editorial Strategy & Business Affairs, after a thorough investigation, as first reported by Deadline.
What’s Happening:
- Peter Rice, the chairman of Walt Disney Television and co-chair of Disney Media Networks, sent an email to ABC News staff informing them that Barbara Fedida has been relieved of her duties following an investigation into reports of racially insensitive remarks.
- Her role will be split in two going forward, with business affairs separated from talent relations and recruitment.
- One of the areas Barbara Fedida oversaw was newsroom inclusion, making findings of racially insensitive comments made by her all the more troubling.
- The email from Peter Rice also cleared up some aspects of media reports from other outlets that were false, including claims that there were dozens of HR complaints about Barbara Fedida, which wasn’t true, and stories about Disney spending millions of dollars in confidential settlements, which didn’t happen.
- In addition to Barbara Fedida’s termination and splitting her responsibilities into two positions, ABC News is working to “Enhance the culture of inclusion,” promising employees that more details will be shared by the end of this week.