ABC accused the Federal Communications Commission of censorship amid the network’s eight TV broadcasting licenses being thrown into jeopardy over early license renewal.
In a 119-page regulatory filing posted Thursday, ABC’s lawyers blamed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for trying to censor the network by succumbing to President Trump’s attacks against his perceived media adversaries.
“The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: accommodate the Administration’s view of what news coverage should look like or pay the price,” the ABC attorneys said. “Across the government, regulatory and contracting carrots and sticks have been trained on other disfavored speakers. The tools vary; the objective does not: a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely.”
A spokesperson for the FCC said in a statement that “broadcasters are required by law to operate in the public interest — not in the narrow or partisan interests of a political party. Broadcasters know that they are prohibited from engaging in invidious forms of DEI discrimination, that they must comply with political equal opportunity regulations, and that they are barred from running broadcast hoaxes or distorting the news.”
The agency’s early license review was launched as part of an investigation into whether Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices violated federal law, which Mr. Carr has maintained is the basis.
Eight Disney-owned local ABC stations were ordered to file for early license renewals, an action ABC noted has not occurred ahead of schedule in over 50 years.
“The FCC is going to hold broadcasters accountable to the full extent of the law, regardless of any disinformation campaign that some of them may choose to run,” the spokesperson added.
Mr. Carr has questioned whether “The View” qualifies as a “bona fide news program” under equal-time exemption rules.
The FCC’s early-renewal order came in April, one day after Mr. Trump publicly called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke about Melania Trump — timing that ABC’s filing calls proof of “retaliatory purpose.”
ABC filed responses accusing the FCC and Mr. Carr of trying to chill free speech. The network highlighted more than 140,000 public comments submitted to the FCC, noting that a vast majority support the station licenses remaining intact.
“The Commission’s attempted censorship of ABC has attracted condemnation across the political aisle,” the network said in the filing.
