Disney and ABC Ask FCC to Reject Petitions to Deny TV License Renewals, Say Agency Is Taking ‘Punitive’ Action Against Broadcasters Trump Dislikes
Disney and ABC urged the FCC to toss out petitions calling for the agency to deny the renewal of broadcast licenses for ABC’s eight owned-and-operated TV...
Key points
- Disney and ABC urged the FCC to toss out petitions calling for the agency to deny the renewal of broadcast licenses for ABC’s eight owned-and-operated TV stations, and they reiterated the assertion that the agency is targeting the stations with the “death penalty of license non-renewal” because President Donald Trump doesn’t like the programming carried on the network.
- “For years, President Trump has expressly demanded that the Commission revoke ABC’s broadcast licenses for speech he dislikes,” Disney and ABC said in an FCC filing submitted July 29 and posted publicly Thursday.
- They continued: “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.” However, they added, “denying a license renewal for disfavored speech would be outright censorship.” In the filing, Disney and ABC said the FCC “must deny the Petitions to Deny, or alternatively, dismiss these early renewal proceedings as untimely and unwarranted.” “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 filing said.
- The Center for American Rights’ petition argued that ABC’s stations are not operating “in the public interest,” alleging the network’s programs “show a consistent and overt partisan bias” and that “ABC engages in explicit racial and gender discrimination”; the group also alleged that “ABC cozies up to the Communist Chinese Party and airbrushes over religious and ethnic cleansing.” The Media Research Center said ABC’s license renewals should be denied because of its alleged “notorious efforts to improperly influence national elections, and its willful engagement in misinformation and the promotion of violence.” In their reply, Disney/ABC said that “the few petitions submitted in opposition to the Stations’ applications come not from their local communities, but from interest groups with a mission to persuade the FCC to exert editorial control over the programming of networks like ABC.” It adds that the petitioners “identify no violation of the Communications Act or FCC rules of any kind, let alone one that could justify the extraordinary remedy of a designation for hearing or denial of a license renewal.” Regarding accusations that ABC programming engages in “news distortion” in violation of FCC rules, Disney/ABC said the agency’s policy in this area “provides even less justification for a denial based on statements made on ABC network comedy shows like ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’ or opinion commentaries on shows like ‘The View.'” The filing continues, “Even assuming some of the commentary on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ or ‘The View’ contained factual inaccuracies, ‘isolated mistake[s]’ cannot count as news distortion.” The FCC’s deadline for submitting comments opposing petitions to deny ABC’s license renewals was July 29.
What happened
Disney and ABC urged the FCC to toss out petitions calling for the agency to deny the renewal of broadcast licenses for ABC’s eight owned-and-operated TV stations, and they reiterated the assertion that the agency is targeting the stations with the “death penalty of license non-renewal” because President Donald Trump doesn’t like the programming carried on the network. “For years, President Trump has expressly demanded that the Commission revoke ABC’s broadcast licenses for speech he dislikes,” Disney and ABC said in an FCC filing submitted July 29 and posted publicly Thursday. They continued: “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.” However, they added, “denying a license renewal for disfavored speech would be outright censorship.” In the filing, Disney and ABC said the FCC “must deny the Petitions to Deny, or alternatively, dismiss these early renewal proceedings as untimely and unwarranted.” “The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every...
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