Warner Bros. Discovery - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Warner Bros. Discovery is Medium Risk.

Warner Bros. Discovery is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company elevates merit, excellence, and integrity ahead of race and identity-based policies. Warner Bros. occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Lower Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	High Risk
Employment Protection	Medium Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	Lower Risk

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Warner Bros. Discovery has not publicly canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (1).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Warner Bros. Discovery and its subsidiary HBO likely use Benevity as their charitable giving platform. Benevity vets charities according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate List, which includes mainstream libertarian, conservative, family, and religious advocacy organizations (1)(2)(3).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Warner Bros. had a history of considering demographics in application processes. However, in February 2025, Warner Bros pledged to have a “uniform and consistent application process” for their development programs (1)(2). The company’s development programs are open to all employees. “Employees have access to a suite of global programs and offerings, including a comprehensive suite of on-demand self-paced training. All regular employees across all levels can openly register and attend the sessions.” (3). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (4).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Warner Media opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (1)(2). In partnership with the RFK Human Rights organization, Discovery Education hosted a video of youth promoting LGBTQ Rights (3)(4). Discovery Education also has material that instructs Year 5 students on “gender identity” (5). Discovery’s President and CEO, David Zaslav, denounced various states’ legislative efforts to protect election integrity and security (6). Discovery Education’s CEO, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace, strategize on DEI programs/initiatives with other signatories, and engage boards of directors when developing and evaluating DEI strategies (7)(8). Warner Media had a history of engaging with activist stakeholder organizations, including the so-called Human Rights Campaign. However, in February 2025, the company pledged to stop filling out external diversity surveys, which include the so-called Corporate Equality Index, and to rebrand its DEI efforts as “inclusion” (9). In 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery rebranded its DEI policies and initiatives as ‘Inclusion.’ (10)(11).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Warner Bros. Discovery and CNN provides a benefits package for employees that covers travel/lodging costs for an abortion (1)(2)(3). The company stated, “In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision, we immediately expanded our health care benefits options to cover transportation expenses for employees and their covered family members who need to travel to access abortion and reproductive care,” (4). Warner Bros. Discovery is a Silver Tier corporate sponsor of the Trevor Project, an organization that advocates for controversial sex and gender ideology, including “gender transition” drugs and surgeries for minors, through legislation, litigation, advertising, and PR campaigns. The organization also hosts online chatrooms that allow adults to communicate with minors as young as 13 about sexually explicit topics. Adults in these chatrooms have encouraged minors to adopt transgender identities and withhold this information from their parents (5)(6)(7)(8)(9). In 2020, Warner Bros. Discovery signed a deal with Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors, sponsoring her to make digital content for the network (10)(11). However, no content was ever released, and in 2023, Ms. Cullors was quietly let go (12). WarnerMedia was a previous partner of the HRC’s Foundation (13). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (14).