ABC has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission, claiming the Trump administration has “waged a retaliatory campaign” against the network over its broadcasts.
The suit further seeks to block the FCC “from taking or threatening to take any action” against Disney, ABC and its eight owned-and-operated television stations in connection with early license renewal applications.
“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.”
The Tuesday morning filing in federal District Court in D.C. states that ABC has “no alternative means to eliminate these ongoing and immediate threats other than total capitulation to the administration’s demands” and that “over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”
The filing comes after FCC chairman Brendan Carr publicly targeted ABC programs including “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The View.” The commission has also subjected ABC’s eight owned-and-operated stations to an accelerated license-renewal review, which the FCC has linked to Disney’s DEI practices. ABC has argued the scrutiny is retaliation for the network’s editorial decisions, including its coverage of President Trump’s primetime address last month.
“All broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest — even Disney. The FCC has been examining claims that Disney engaged in illegal DEI discrimination for over a year,” an FCC spokesperson responded on Tuesday. “Disney is obviously very concerned about the FCC’s proceeding, as evidenced by their ongoing campaign of disinformation as well as their decision to ask a court to stop the FCC from further pursuing matters. The FCC will continue to follow the facts and law wherever they lead.”
ABC previously urged the FCC to dismiss its early renewal license review last month, calling it an “untimely and unwarranted” move. “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,” the company wrote at the time. “The tools vary; the objective does not: a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely.”
“Our position on this is clear. We’re very principled on this. 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,” Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro added in a CNBC interview during Disney’s D23 Expo last week. “Our filings, I think, speak for that. I like what we do. We tell incredible stories. I think we do it well. We do it around the world. And we’re going to stay committed to that.”
The final replies in the FCC’s license renewal proceeding closed on Aug. 5, with Disney and ABC receiving thousands of public comments of support. Carr told reporters last month that the agency would “look at the record and decide based on the evidence before us what the next step will be,” but did not set a specific timeline for a decision.
