The Disney-owned ABC network filed early license renewal applications for its eight television stations on Thursday, fulfilling a demand set by the Federal Communications Commission.
But in doing so, the media company objected to the agency’s “unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional” April 28 order that started the early renewal process years before the scheduled license expiration date. The FCC gave ABC 30 days to comply with its demand.
“The Commission had not demanded early renewal in over five decades. And it has never before demanded simultaneous license renewal applications from a group of stations commonly owned with a network as it has here,” ABC’s flagship station in New York wrote in the filing. “The Order has no legitimate purpose.”
ABC called on the FCC to rescind the order as it’s “plainly incompatible” with the First Amendment.
“Worse, the Order opens the door to an assault on the Station’s license, while the Commission searches for a legal pretext to achieve its desired goal,” the company said. “This effort to suppress speech under the guise of bureaucratic process must not prevail.”
The commission’s early license renewal order stemmed from its scrutiny of the broadcaster’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, though the move came shortly after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump demanded Disney and ABC fire late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr insisted the decision had nothing to do with Kimmel, but ABC noted the unusual timing in its filing.
“The timing of the Order makes the retaliatory purpose unmistakable,” the document states. “The Order suddenly emerged the day after public calls for punitive action in response to comments made during ABC Network programming.”
Last month, Kimmel joked on-air about first lady Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow” two nights before the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner shooting. Defending his joke after facing intense backlash, the comedian claimed it was intended to be about the presidential couple’s 24-year age gap.
In furtherance of its argument, ABC warned about the “chilling effect” that would be placed on all licensed broadcasters and how that would harm the public’s access to independent journalism. It also criticized the FCC for targeting a whole network of stations, not just one.
“Simultaneously forcing every station in a media company’s portfolio to file premature license renewal applications is not a regulatory tool,” the network wrote. “It is an extraordinary demonstration of power 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 that this Commission and this proceeding must not be permitted to normalize.”
Firing back at the claim that the early license renewal process started for no reason, Carr said the action was justified following a yearlong investigation into Disney’s alleged discriminatory hiring practices.
FCC CHALLENGES ABC LICENSING AFTER REFUSING TO FIRE JIMMY KIMMEL
“Disney only filed these applications to renew their ABC broadcast licenses after the FCC informed the company that their responses to the agency’s investigation had been disingenuous, deficient, and improper,” Carr posted on X. “Broadcast licensees have a unique obligation to operate in the public interest. The FCC will follow the facts and law wherever they may lead.”
Separately, the FCC is targeting ABC’s The View by enforcing the equal time rule that does not exempt daytime talk shows from bona fide news coverage. The program is facing a federal challenge after its hosts interviewed Texas Democrat James Talarico but not his opposing candidates in the Senate race. ABC criticized the FCC over the dispute as well.