Broadcast licenses are the quiet backbone of local TV. And right now, ABC claims the government is using those licenses as a weapon.
Disney-owned ABC filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday over the FCC's decision to fast-track the renewal of some of its broadcast licenses. The network calls it a "retaliatory campaign" triggered by programming that has taken critical aim at President Donald Trump.
The FCC started reviewing ABC's broadcast licenses in April, which is well before those licenses were set to expire. The agency's chairman, Brendan Carr, said the early review is about Disney's diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Carr, who was appointed by Trump, has denied the move has anything to do with the First Amendment.
ABC saw it differently. In May, the network filed its renewal applications "under protest," calling the FCC's demand "unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional."
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a Washington, D.C. district court, asks a judge to halt the early renewal process. The dispute stems from political pressure that built after remarks from Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night program, which ABC airs. The network has also faced government attention over its daytime show "The View."
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The bottom line: the FCC is required to renew licenses unless a station breaks the rules. The Communications Act of 1934 and FCC regulations bar unlawful discrimination, and the commission began investigating Disney's stations last year for possible breaches of that law.
This is not just a company lawyer fighting a government agency. The suit has a lot of weight behind it on both sides.
Disney's CEO Josh D'Amaro, who took over from Bob Iger in March, defended the company's position. "I think you saw in our FCC filings our position on this is clear, we're very principled on this," he told CNBC last week. "We're going to stand up to what we believe is journalistic integrity, and we're not going to be told how to run that side of our business."
On the other side, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the commission, sided with ABC, backing the lawsuit in a statement Tuesday. She called the FCC's actions "a campaign of censorship and control" that uses license revocations to "punish a company for speech this administration doesn't like."
This is not a normal license renewal. The FCC started its review in April, an action that came shortly after renewed political backlash. Meanwhile, ABC said in court filings it "continues to face irreparable harm" from the administration's actions through the FCC.
This fight sets up a conflict between settled law and the current sitting of regulators. The Communications Act of 1934 says broadcasters are supposed to serve the "public interest, convenience, and necessity," a standard is broad enough to be argued over.
If ABC loses its licenses, local stations would have to stop broadcasting over the air or sign expensive agreements with other carriers to stay in business. No station owner wants that outcome.
The catch: license renewal disputes have been rare, but this one has never been harder to resolve. There is no fix for a license that has not yet been granted, and the legal challenge could take months or years. On paper, the dispute between ABC and the Trump administration concerns a deadline that is years ahead of their scheduled expiration.
It is a daunting situation for any company that runs a broadcast television. But the real world test is showing up in your living room. If a cable channel is pulled from your lineup because the FCC, a government agency, is unhappy with who says what, you will know exactly why this letter matters.
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