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ABC submitted a scathing filing to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday in opposition to petitions to deny its stations’ license renewals.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr called the licenses of eight ABC-owned stations for early renewal in April. The Disney-owned ABC station’s licenses were originally scheduled to be renewed between 2028 and 2031, but the FCC expedited the process amid ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
The eight stations must demonstrate they have been operating in the public interest as part of an ongoing look at Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. While the FCC filing did not specifically mention Kimmel, ABC argues the action is retaliatory.
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“There is no question why the Commission is singling out these eight stations: Each is owned by ABC, and the Administration has openly and repeatedly called for the revocation of ABC’s licenses, because it dislikes the content and viewpoints expressed on ABC network programs,” ABC’s legal team wrote.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
KFSN-TV in Fresno, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, KGO-TV in San Francisco, WLS-TV in Chicago, WABC-TV in New York, WTVD in Durham, N.C., WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and KTRK-TV in Houston are the Disney-owned stations in question.
“The outpouring of support for the Stations has been unprecedented for a license renewal proceeding,” ABC wrote.
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“Over 140,000 comments have been received from the Stations’ local communities—from individual viewers to local police and firefighters, charities, businesses, and schools—and over 95% support the Stations,” the filing continued. “These supporters span the ideological spectrum but share a fundamental commitment to free speech and press freedom. This record demonstrates that the Stations serve the public interest with distinction.”
ABC issued a scathing filing protesting the FCC’s actions, calling it “retaliation.” (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto)
ABC insists the FCC “has spent the last 18 months searching for some pretext for revoking the Stations’ licenses,” but “has found none, because the Stations easily meet the standard for license renewal—which under the law means that the Commission cannot revoke their licenses or order a hearing on their renewal applications.”
The Trump administration has beef with Kimmel, who lampoons the president on a regular basis and whose controversial “expectant widow” joke earlier this year resulted in first lady Melania Trump calling for him to be fired. The FCC has also launched a probe into ABC daytime show “The View,” and Carr recently took exception to the Disney-owned network declining to air Trump’s primetime address on linear television.
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“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. 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,” ABC wrote.
“Calling up the license of a single Station—let alone all eight at once—while the Commission’s DEI investigation has found no violation is unnecessary, premature, and punitive,” ABC continued in the filing. “Even if any violation were ever substantiated, the Commission has a graduated set of well-established remedies far short of the corporate death penalty of license non-renewal.”
ABC’s “The View” has been at the center of the FCC’s battle with the Disney-owned stations. (Lou Rocco/Getty Images)
An FCC spokesperson issued the following statement: “For decades, Americans of all stripes have been subsidizing broadcast media to the tune of many billions of dollars by giving TV stations free use of a valuable, public resource—the airwaves. In exchange, 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 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.”
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The Media Research Center (MRC), the conservative watchdog group that previously filed a petition in support of the early review of ABC’s broadcasting licenses, doubled down on its stance.
“ABC’s defense boils down to this: ‘Trust us.’ Americans do not, which is why confidence in the media is at historic lows,” MRC president David Bozell told Fox News Digital. “Our filing is not based on hurt feelings or political disagreement. It is based on documented conduct. We look forward to the FCC reviewing the facts rather than the distractions.”
