ABC Files First Amendment Lawsuit Against FCC Over ‘Retaliatory Campaign’

ABC has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the FCC, claiming the Trump administration has “waged a retaliatory campaign” against the network. “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 claims, per multiple media reports. The Tuesday morning filing in federal U.S. District Court states that Disney’s network 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 update comes after FCC chairman Brendan Carr had publicly taken aim at series such as “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The View,” more recently investigating ABC’s broadcast licenses — supposedly stemming from the company’s DEI policies, but also due to the network’s coverage of President Trump’s July primetime address. 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.