Disney sues Trump-era FCC over alleged retaliatory ABC broadcast license review

The lawsuit, which was filed in Washington, DC, federal court, seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on the FCC’s review of eight of Disney’s licenses – including ABC channels in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Disney and ABC are suing President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission, arguing that the administration’s demand that eight of their stations file their broadcast license renewals early is an attack on their free speech. “Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts,” the lawsuit reads. “That campaign began in this Administration’s earliest days and has only intensified since.... Again and again, the administration ​has attacked ABC’s speech — the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air.” This FCC’s threat to strip the ABC channels of their broadcast licenses followed a joke from late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel last spring, in which he said First Lady Melania Trump glowed “like an expectant widow” two days before the failed White House Correspondents’ Dinner attack. The joke caused a massive uproar from MAGAworld, including the president himself, who called for Kimmel’s termination. The lawsuit specifically cites Trump’s Truth Social posts calling for Kimmel’s termination as proof of the administration’s bias against him.“The Commission issued an unprecedented order requiring the Stations to file early applications to renew their licenses—years before any of their licenses would have come up for renewal in the ordinary course and allowing only thirty days to file applications which ordinarily take months to prepare,” the suit continued.Kimmel was also attacked by the Trump administration for joking about how Republicans responded to the death of Charlie Kirk last year. Disney briefly pulled Kimmell off the air after pressure from FCC Chair Brendan Carr. The FCC attack came amid a probe into the daytime talk show The View for being too woke. The lawsuit from Disney—one of the biggest and most recognizable media companies ever—is an aggressive defense of media freedom, rather than another capitulation as we’ve seen from other networks. This story has been updated.

US media giant accuses Federal Communications Commission of cracking down because it ‘disapproves’ of its broadcasts

Disney says the Trump administration “has attacked ABC’s speech — the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air.”