ABC News executive Barbara Fedida will not return to the Disney-owned unit after an investigation into the allegations of callous behavior and her treatment of employees, the company confirmed to NBC News.
Employees were notified of the matter Monday in a memo from Peter Rice, president of Walt Disney Television. “The investigation confirmed that Ms Fedida made some of the racially callous unacceptable comments attributed to her. It also confirmed that Ms Fedida handled roughly and sometimes used rude and inappropriate language,” Rice said. “Finally, the investigation found no basis for claims that Ms. Fedida was the subject of dozens of human resource complaints and that ABC News spent millions of dollars on confidential settlements related to Ms. Fedida, as alleged in some press accounts. “
In June, a report by The Huffington Post, citing interviews with 34 sources, raised allegations of a series of callous comments by Fedida, often with racial comments made in front of employees. Fedida, an award-winning producer, joined ABC News in 2011 as senior vice president of talent and business. As part of that role, he was influential in determining who ABC News hired and the career paths of many of the journalists and correspondents in the news operation. Over the years, staff have seen her as an assistant to the unit’s top managers, acting as a kind of lieutenant to former ABC News president Ben Sherwood and other top ABC News executives. He recently reported to ABC News President James Goldston.
ABC News placed Fedida on administrative leave while an outside law firm investigated the claims raised by the article.
Fedida is the latest media executive to come under scrutiny as the industry faces the aftermath of recent protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
“Although Ms. Fedida made contributions to the organization during her 20-year career, in light of the overall findings, we have determined that she can no longer serve in a leadership role and will not return to ABC News.” Rice said.
Disney intends to restructure Fedida’s role, he added, with ABC News’ business affairs managed separately from talent relations and recruitment. She also said that ABC News needed “to improve the culture of inclusion and further advance our goal of attracting, nurturing and retaining diverse talent. We will provide more details on these initiatives later this week.”
In television news circles, Fedida played a critical role behind the scenes, and his hiring decisions could help catapult careers. During her years on ABC News and CBS News, she was integral to recruiting and serving well-known correspondents and presenters, including Tom Llamas, Sara Haines, Meghan McCain and Ginger Zee on ABC, and Jeff Glor, John Dickerson, Erica Hill and Seth. Doane on CBS.
Fedida was the last media executive to come under scrutiny as the industry faces the aftermath of recent protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. The reaction to Floyd’s death has sparked a new national discussion about how people of all backgrounds, races, and creeds are treated in American society. Condé Nast and Vice are among the media companies that have negotiated through employee accusations of top executives’ behavior towards people of color.
Fedida reportedly asked attendees at a company luncheon held after mass shooting incidents in the US that the ABC News employee would likely be an active shooter.
Among the claims raised in the Huffington Post story was an observation made when Fedida was involved in negotiations with “Good Morning America” presenter Robin Roberts’ contract. When Fedida and her colleagues were discussing how Roberts wanted more money as part of her contract renewal, the report alleged that Fedida said it was not as if ABC was asking the presenter to “choose cotton.” In another incident, Fedida reportedly asked attendees at a company luncheon held after mass shooting incidents in the US that the ABC News employee would likely be an active shooter.
In a statement provided to the Huffington Post by Fedida’s attorney at the time of his initial report, he said: “Throughout my career, I have been an advocate for greater diversity in network news. Building a news division Where everyone can prosper has been the life of my life. I am proud of my decades of recruiting, supporting and promoting talented journalists of color. And, unlike these heartbreaking and incredibly misleading claims about me, that record is well documented and undeniable. “
