03 Jun 2024 Top Brands Confronted Over Controversial Stances and Possible Discrimination
Washington, D.C. – Shareholder activists with the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP) will present proposals at four shareholder meetings this week — Warner Bros. Discovery, Walmart, Netflix and Alphabet.
At Warner Bros. Discovery, Walmart and Netflix, FEP will request that their boards of directors create corporate sustainability committees to oversee and review the impact of their company policy positions and advocacy on matters relating to their financial sustainability.
On Monday, June 3, FEP will present Proposal 7 at the Warner Bros. Discovery meeting, and will highlight CNN’s declining ratings, the cancellation of “Batgirl” and the box office drop of “The Flash” as examples of how the company’s leftist agenda is harming its bottom line.
“The Company’s privileging of executive political/social preferences over sound business judgment in its television and film productions has cost shareholders billions already,” FEP notes in its supporting statement.
On Wednesday, June 5, FEP will present Proposal 10 at Walmart’s shareholder meeting, noting that the company has given significant resources to both the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which have together contributed to the weakening of American civilization, well-being and unity.
In addition, FEP’s supporting statement notes that Walmart “has been rated a ‘high risk’ by the 1792 Exchange which… lists the following as potential concerns for Walmart: (1) ‘discriminating against faith-based charities,’ (2) ‘does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees,’ (3) ‘has given to numerous ideological groups hostile to free expression’… and (4) ‘CEO Doug McMillon is a member of the Business Roundtable and signed its 2019 Statement on the Purpose of Corporation, which promotes stakeholder capitalism over traditional obligations to shareholders and customers.'”
On Thursday, June 6, FEP will present Proposal 5 at the Netflix shareholder meeting, drawing attention to how the number of Netflix subscribers has gone significantly down and then up again congruent with the company’s decisions to embrace and then shelve “woke content.”
“The data couldn’t be more clear,” FEP says in its supporting statement. “Netflix subscribers simply don’t want to be preached on politics — especially in a radically one-sided fashion — they just want to watch good content… Netflix began to successfully drag itself off of this pathway in 2023, but it must ensure that this change is lasting and therefore in service of the financial sustainability of the Company.”
On Friday, June 7, FEP will present Proposal 4 at Alphabet’s (Google’s) shareholder meeting, requesting that the company issue a public report detailing the potential risks associated with omitting “viewpoint” and “ideology” from its written equal employment opportunity (EEO) policy.
“Alphabet does not explicitly prohibit discrimination based on viewpoint or ideology in its written EEO policy,” writes FEP in its supporting statement. “There is ample evidence that individuals with conservative viewpoints may face discrimination at Alphabet.”
The statement continues:
According to a study that examined the political contributions of Alphabet employees over several election cycles, 90 percent of political donations by Google, YouTube, and other subsidiaries of Alphabet have gone to Democrats… Most tellingly, a leaked video following the 2016 presidential election shows Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin alongside several execs, including CEO Sundar Pichai, lamenting the Democrats’ loss and insulting and demeaning voters who did not support Clinton.
Coupled with the fact that Alphabet has refused previous requests to increase the viewpoint diversity of its board, this type of behavior signals to employees that viewpoint discrimination is condoned if not encouraged at the highest levels.
More information about these proposals, as well as other key votes, can be found in FEP’s mobile and web app, ProxyNavigator.
About
The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 60,000 active recent contributors. Contributions are tax-deductible and may be earmarked for the Free Enterprise Project. Sign up for email updates at https://nationalcenter.org/subscribe/.
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