In a fiery legal filing with the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday, ABC filed early renewal requests for the eight local TV stations it owns and operates, though the Disney-owned broadcaster indicated it was doing so “under protest.”
“The Commission has not sought early renewal in more than five decades. It has never sought simultaneous license renewal applications from a group of stations jointly owned by a network as it has done here,” the filing, from the network’s flagship WABC New York, said in the filing. “It may be no legitimate purpose.”
ABC argues that the FCC, headed by Brendan Carr, was trying to “suppress free speech under the guise of bureaucratic process.”
ABC cites the timing of the request, which came days after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel came under fire from President Trump, who called for his ouster over a joke he made about First Lady Melania Trump.
“The timing of the order makes the retaliatory intent clear,” the filing said. “The matter came to light the day after public calls for punitive action in response to comments made during ABC programming.”
Carr told reporters last month that the timing was “unrelated” to the Kimmel news:
“I understand that anything we do is now framed as ‘in the aftermath’ in the headlines, and I understand that that is the case, but we have to make those decisions based on where we are in the investigations and what is best for the next steps in the enforcement actions in the headlines can be the headlines, but that was the basis for our decision.”
But Anna Gomez, the Democratic commissioner of the FCC, said, “This is clearly an excuse. I mean, give me a break.”
In addition to Kimmel, the FCC was also targeted The viewthe committee showed during the day, suggesting that it may have violated the equal opportunity requirement for political candidates. ABC previously responded to the effort as “unprecedented” and argued that it would “calm down” the rhetoric.
The FCC said the early license renewal related to Disney’s DEI practices, not its programs,
Instead, the network says, the ultimate loser in this battle will be television viewers, who will lose out on the accountability reporting and independent journalism provided by the current system.
“The ultimate harm here is not to the station or its parent company. It is to the public,” the filing stated. “When a broadcaster has to consider regulatory retaliation before making editorial decisions, the public loses access to a press free from government influence. The Order – whether on its own terms or as a signal to other broadcasters – achieves exactly this result. A press that edits itself to avoid government disfavor is not a free press. The Commission should not be an instrument of this result.”
The exceptional nature of demand, focusing not just on one station but on an entire network, is part of that toolkit, says ABC:
“Forcing every station in a media company’s portfolio at the same time to submit early license renewal applications is not a regulatory tool,” the filing states. “It is an extraordinary display of force and coercion directed at disfavored editorial voices, which sends a clear warning to every broadcaster in America. This is a threat to the First Amendment, which this committee and this action must not be allowed to normalize.”
