‘Corporate death penalty’: ABC News urges judge to block FCC censorship campaign

The Trump administration has pointed to a March 2025 probe into discriminatory hiring practices at the company as the basis for reviewing broadcasts licenses for ABC News and eight regional affiliates.WASHINGTON (CN) — ABC News urged a federal judge on Tuesday to block the Federal Communication Commission’s threat to revoke ABC News of its broadcasting license, warning it would amount to a “corporate death penalty.”U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan heard arguments for the news outlet’s motion for a temporary restraining order to halt an ongoing license renewal process and the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds, but the Joe Biden appointee passed on making an immediate decision.Beth Wilkinson, of Wilkinson Stekloff and representing ABC News, compared the FCC’s threats to revoke the news outlet’s broadcasting license to a hanging guillotine, with the agency using an early license renewal process as a pretext to punish ABC for its critical coverage of President Donald Trump.“Over the last two years, there’s been escalating threats against ABC,” Wilkinson said. “Now, [Trump] has control over vast regulatory powers that he’s willing to use against those he does not like, he has put in place a chairman at the FCC who understands his marching orders and is not shy about saying so. These are blatant violations of the U.S. Constitution.”The FCC’s license review of ABC News and eight of its regional affiliates — the station’s licenses were set to expire between December 2028 and August 2031 — is the first use of the process in nearly 60 years, Wilkinson said. She added that, even if the FCC decides to ultimately grant their renewals, the guillotine blade remains hanging over the news outlet’s head throughout the process, which clearly chills its First Amendment activity.With the midterm elections just a month away, Wilkinson urged AliKhan to quickly halt the FCC’s actions to prevent further harm that has thus far forced ABC to watch its every move and change editorial decisions.Justice Department attorney Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel argued, under the Communications Act, ABC News could only seek relief at the D.C. Circuit and warned any action taken by AliKhan would undermine both her and the appellate court’s jurisdiction.He further argued the license reviews only began following an initial March 2025 antidiscrimination probe into Disney’s hiring practices — part of the Justice Department’s ongoing campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion practices — and the company’s refusal to provide requested documents. The company chose to file suit over 500 days after that probe began, Georgiev-Remmel said, and should cut against the need for immediate relief.AliKhan pressed Georgiev-Remmel to explain how the anti-discrimination investigation could be squared with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s public statements at Mar-a-Lago in March criticizing coverage of the Iran war.“It strikes me with all the comments that we have from the president and from Commissioner Carr that this is merely over discovery dispute,” AliKhan said.Georgiev-Remmel replied that the broadcasters, as regulated entities and trustees of the nation’s public airwaves, have an obligation to serve the public interest. He cited the Supreme Court’s 1969 decision in *Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC,*which upheld the FCC’s fairness doctrine as consistent with the First Amendment.On that point, Georgiev-Remmel highlighted Trump’s July 16 national address from the White House, where he advanced baseless claims of election fraud, that ABC News and NBC News declined to broadcast as proof the outlet was not acting in the public interest.AliKhan appeared unconvinced, noting that such comments seemed to undermine his argument that the anti-discrimination investigation was still the primary basis for the FCC’s actions. In response, the government lawyer asserted that the president’s national address issue was merely new information that arose during the review process.He further argued that, even if the review process could be compared to a guillotine, the FCC’s hand was not on the lever.“It’s not the commission, but the two judges on the appellate panel holding the guillotine’s blade,” Georgiev-Remmel said, noting the majority of a three-judge panel would just be two judges.The Disney Company sued the Trump administration on Aug. 18, seeking an order blocking the FCC from issuing a hearing designation order, where the company anticipated its renewal applications or licenses could be revoked.The company highlighted how the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” late show was temporarily suspended last year following the comedian’s comments regarding the assassination of right-wing debater Charlie Kirk suggesting the GOP sought to “score political points” off his death.ABC temporarily suspended Kimmel’s show for five days hours after Carr issued an ultimatum that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”That same week, the FCC ordered ABC’s eight regional stations to file early applications for license renewal, years before the usual time for such renewals and allowing just 30 days to file applications that usually take months.The stations include affiliates in Durham, North Carolina, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia and Fresno, California. For all but the Durham and Chicago stations, the review comes before their current licenses have reached the halfway mark.AliKhan instructed the parties to submit supplemental briefs, with the last due on Oct. 14, suggesting any decision will come in the following weeks.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads