Brendan Carr ABC licenses pressure is back on the table after the FCC chair said the agency’s review of ABC’s local broadcast licenses may consider the network’s decision not to air President Donald Trump’s recent prime-time speech live. According to Deadline, Carr told reporters Wednesday that broadcasters “should be carrying” a White House speech by the president and said the issue had raised questions about their public-interest obligations.
ABC and NBC did not carry the speech live. Techdirt reported that Trump used the address to repeat false claims about election fraud tied to his 2020 loss, and argued that airing it live would have spread election-integrity claims before they could be checked.
Carr framed the matter as part of a broader FCC inquiry. “There have been lots of concerns raised, including by members of Congress, about whether broadcasters and their decisions there comply with the public interest,” Carr said, according to Deadline.
Can the FCC punish ABC for not airing Trump's speech?
The FCC licenses local broadcast stations that use public airwaves, and those licenses carry a public-interest standard. Critics of Carr’s approach, including Techdirt, argue that the First Amendment gives ABC editorial control over what it broadcasts and that the FCC does not have authority to dictate a private network’s programming schedule.
That distinction matters. The FCC can review broadcast licenses, but Carr’s threat turns a licensing process into leverage over editorial judgment. If the regulator’s theory is that a network must air a presidential speech because the president wants it aired, the fight quickly becomes a constitutional one rather than a routine license review.
The latest warning follows earlier FCC actions involving ABC. Techdirt has reported that Carr opened inquiries this year after ABC hosted Democratic Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico on The View, aired comedians who mocked Trump and the first lady, and ran journalism critical of Trump-related conduct. Techdirt has also argued that Carr’s claims against ABC rely on FCC rules that do not apply in the way Carr has suggested.
ABC has already been under pressure from Trump. The Associated Press reported that ABC agreed in 2024 to pay $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Trump over comments by George Stephanopoulos. Techdirt has described the case as one ABC could have fought, while AP reported the settlement amount and the parties involved.
More recently, Techdirt reported that The View pulled back from hosting political candidates after the FCC pressure campaign. The show’s earlier interview with Talarico became one of the episodes cited in the dispute around ABC’s public-interest obligations.
Carr has presented himself as an aggressive enforcer. The Financial Times reported that he described himself in interviews as a “pit bull” regulator. His critics say the ABC fight shows that posture being aimed at editorial decisions by broadcasters, not technical compliance or spectrum management.
ABC has also pushed back. Techdirt reported that ABC accused Carr of working with local right-wing broadcast affiliates to build a record suggesting the network had violated FCC rules. Any formal FCC action against ABC over its refusal to air Trump’s speech would likely face the same central objection raised by critics: a licensing agency is not a presidential programming desk.
This story draws on original reporting from Techdirt.
