CBS and Paramount finally admit their DEI policies were discriminating against straight white males, settling a landmark lawsuit that has Hollywood executives scrambling to rewrite their woke playbooks.
At a Glance
- Former CBS script coordinator Brian Beneker won a settlement after suing for discrimination as a white, heterosexual male who was passed over for promotions
- CBS had previously established racial quotas targeting 50% nonwhite writers in their writers’ rooms by 2022-2023
- Paramount Global has now scaled back DEI initiatives, removing diversity goals from employee incentive programs
- The settlement signals a broader retreat from race and gender-based hiring practices across Hollywood studios
Hollywood’s DEI Experiment Comes Crashing Down
In a victory for basic fairness and common sense, CBS and Paramount Global have been forced to settle a discrimination lawsuit that exposed the ugly underbelly of their beloved DEI policies. Brian Beneker, a former script coordinator on CBS’s military drama SEAL Team, had the audacity to suggest that maybe—just maybe—being explicitly told he didn’t “check any diversity boxes” while watching less qualified minorities get promoted ahead of him constituted actual discrimination. Imagine that! Apparently, being a straight white male in today’s Hollywood is the modern equivalent of wearing a scarlet letter.
The lawsuit revealed CBS’s ambitious 2020 plan to engineer their writers’ rooms by race, targeting 40% BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) writers by the 2021-2022 season and 50% by 2022-2023. Because nothing says “creative excellence” like counting melanin levels before examining writing samples. This is the diversity math that somehow adds up to equality while subtracting merit from the equation. The stunning revelation here isn’t that such policies existed—we’ve all suspected it—but that executives were brazen enough to formalize and implement them so openly.
Legal Team Claims Victory For Merit-Based Hiring
America First Legal (AFL), the conservative legal group that represented Beneker, didn’t mince words about what this settlement means for the entertainment industry. Their senior counsel, Nick Barry, delivered a verbal beatdown that studios should frame and hang in their diversity offices—assuming those offices still exist after this reckoning. This wasn’t just a legal victory; it was an indictment of an entire ideological system built on the bizarre notion that the best way to fight discrimination is with more discrimination, just aimed at different targets.
“America First Legal is pleased to see Paramount and CBS publicly back off their DEI requirements and return to merit-based considerations. Diversity quotas that discriminate on the basis of race are unlawful. Others in the entertainment industry should take note.” – Nick Barry, America First Legal Senior Counsel.
While the settlement terms weren’t disclosed (surprise, surprise), the case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can’t be refiled. Beneker had originally sought $500,000 and a court order for a full-time producer position—along with the radical notion that CBS should stop discriminating against people based on their immutable characteristics. The fact that Paramount previously tried to get the case dismissed, only to have the court reject their attempt, speaks volumes about the legal merits of the complaint.
Hollywood’s Great Diversity Retreat
What’s particularly telling is the timing of Paramount’s DEI retreat. Following President Trump’s return to office and the implementation of anti-DEI policies, Paramount suddenly discovered a newfound appreciation for hiring based on talent rather than identity checkboxes. This corporate pivot isn’t happening in isolation. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and other major studios are similarly scrambling to eliminate staffing goals tied to race, ethnicity, sex, and gender. The great diversity retreat is underway, with executives abandoning ship faster than rats when the lights come on.
“Paramount Global and CBS Studios have agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit America First Legal brought on behalf of our client Brian Beneker. America First Legal is pleased to see Paramount and CBS publicly back off their DEI requirements and return to merit-based considerations. Diversity quotas that discriminate on the basis of race are unlawful. Others in the entertainment industry should take note.” –
CBS and Paramount finally admit their DEI policies were discriminating against straight white males, settling a landmark lawsuit that has Hollywood executives scrambling to rewrite their woke playbooks.
At a Glance
- Former CBS script coordinator Brian Beneker won a settlement after suing for discrimination as a white, heterosexual male who was passed over for promotions
- CBS had previously established racial quotas targeting 50% nonwhite writers in their writers’ rooms by 2022-2023
- Paramount Global has now scaled back DEI initiatives, removing diversity goals from employee incentive programs
- The settlement signals a broader retreat from race and gender-based hiring practices across Hollywood studios
Hollywood’s DEI Experiment Comes Crashing Down
In a victory for basic fairness and common sense, CBS and Paramount Global have been forced to settle a discrimination lawsuit that exposed the ugly underbelly of their beloved DEI policies. Brian Beneker, a former script coordinator on CBS’s military drama SEAL Team, had the audacity to suggest that maybe—just maybe—being explicitly told he didn’t “check any diversity boxes” while watching less qualified minorities get promoted ahead of him constituted actual discrimination. Imagine that! Apparently, being a straight white male in today’s Hollywood is the modern equivalent of wearing a scarlet letter.
The lawsuit revealed CBS’s ambitious 2020 plan to engineer their writers’ rooms by race, targeting 40% BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) writers by the 2021-2022 season and 50% by 2022-2023. Because nothing says “creative excellence” like counting melanin levels before examining writing samples. This is the diversity math that somehow adds up to equality while subtracting merit from the equation. The stunning revelation here isn’t that such policies existed—we’ve all suspected it—but that executives were brazen enough to formalize and implement them so openly.
Legal Team Claims Victory For Merit-Based Hiring
America First Legal (AFL), the conservative legal group that represented Beneker, didn’t mince words about what this settlement means for the entertainment industry. Their senior counsel, Nick Barry, delivered a verbal beatdown that studios should frame and hang in their diversity offices—assuming those offices still exist after this reckoning. This wasn’t just a legal victory; it was an indictment of an entire ideological system built on the bizarre notion that the best way to fight discrimination is with more discrimination, just aimed at different targets.
“America First Legal is pleased to see Paramount and CBS publicly back off their DEI requirements and return to merit-based considerations. Diversity quotas that discriminate on the basis of race are unlawful. Others in the entertainment industry should take note.” – Nick Barry, America First Legal Senior Counsel.
While the settlement terms weren’t disclosed (surprise, surprise), the case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can’t be refiled. Beneker had originally sought $500,000 and a court order for a full-time producer position—along with the radical notion that CBS should stop discriminating against people based on their immutable characteristics. The fact that Paramount previously tried to get the case dismissed, only to have the court reject their attempt, speaks volumes about the legal merits of the complaint.
Hollywood’s Great Diversity Retreat
What’s particularly telling is the timing of Paramount’s DEI retreat. Following President Trump’s return to office and the implementation of anti-DEI policies, Paramount suddenly discovered a newfound appreciation for hiring based on talent rather than identity checkboxes. This corporate pivot isn’t happening in isolation. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and other major studios are similarly scrambling to eliminate staffing goals tied to race, ethnicity, sex, and gender. The great diversity retreat is underway, with executives abandoning ship faster than rats when the lights come on.
“Paramount Global and CBS Studios have agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit America First Legal brought on behalf of our client Brian Beneker. America First Legal is pleased to see Paramount and CBS publicly back off their DEI requirements and return to merit-based considerations. Diversity quotas that discriminate on the basis of race are unlawful. Others in the entertainment industry should take note.” – Nick Barry, America First Legal Senior Counsel.
The settlement is a sobering reminder that the Constitution doesn’t include an asterisk saying “equal protection except when it’s trendy to discriminate against certain groups.” Paramount has stopped collecting gender and diversity data for most U.S. job applicants and removed DEI goals from employee incentive programs. Apparently, rewarding executives for hiring based on skin color rather than skill was a bad idea all along. Who could have possibly predicted that enshrining racial discrimination as corporate policy might violate civil rights laws that have been on the books for over half a century?
America First Legal Senior Counsel.
The settlement is a sobering reminder that the Constitution doesn’t include an asterisk saying “equal protection except when it’s trendy to discriminate against certain groups.” Paramount has stopped collecting gender and diversity data for most U.S. job applicants and removed DEI goals from employee incentive programs. Apparently, rewarding executives for hiring based on skin color rather than skill was a bad idea all along. Who could have possibly predicted that enshrining racial discrimination as corporate policy might violate civil rights laws that have been on the books for over half a century?
