Reporters Committee urges FCC to reject petitions to deny ABC license renewals

The Reporters Committee is urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject petitions seeking to deny the renewal of Disney’s broadcast licenses for several of its ABC stations, raising concerns that the agency is retaliating against the company for its news coverage and other programming in violation of the First Amendment. 

In public comments submitted to the FCC on Wednesday, the Reporters Committee highlighted the agency’s highly unusual decision in April to launch an early review of the licenses of eight ABC stations following criticism of the network by the Trump administration, including FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. The FCC has not called for an early renewal proceeding in more than five decades and it has never done so for all of the owned-and-operated stations for a national network in one grouping.

After the FCC launched its review, a coalition of conservative groups petitioned the agency to reject the license renewals, accusing the network of bias.

While the FCC claims that its early review stems from its investigation into ABC’s employment practices, the circumstances surrounding the proceeding suggest the company is being targeted for broadcasting content that the Trump administration dislikes. 

The Reporters Committee’s comments note that Carr has repeatedly criticized ABC and its programming. Last year, for example, Disney and ABC temporarily suspended late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” after Carr remarked that Kimmel’s monologue about the death of Charlie Kirk was a “concerted effort to lie to the American people.” More recently, Carr stated that ABC’s choice not to air President Trump’s July 16, 2026, address could factor into the agency’s decision on whether to renew the station’s licenses.

The “FCC’s decision to haul Disney and ABC before it in a proceeding that has not occurred in five decades raises serious concerns of a chilling effect,” the Reporters Committee argues. “And the ultimate victim of that chill will be the public itself.”

Related: Last month, the Reporters Committee submitted public comments in response to the FCC’s investigation into whether ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” violated a rule that requires broadcasters to give equal air time to opposing political candidates. The Reporters Committee argued that interviews on the talk show are exempt from the FCC’s equal time rule and that requiring The View and other informational programs to follow it “is not feasible and would chill political news coverage.”

(Photo by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr)