A group of former FCC officials is asking the agency to shut down the FCC ABC license review and related inquiries, arguing that Chair Brendan Carr is using broadcast regulation to pressure ABC and parent company Disney over speech the Trump administration dislikes.
In a filing submitted under the Protect Democracy Project banner, the former officials said the FCC’s early review of ABC’s eight broadcast licenses is a pretext for punishing the network. The filing calls the proceeding “a grave violation of both the Communications Act and the Constitution.”
The filing asks the FCC to end what the coalition describes as improper investigations into ABC, including the early ownership review. The officials’ argument is blunt: a broadcast license gives the FCC authority over spectrum use, not a roving commission to discipline networks for political coverage, comedy or guest bookings.
Why is the FCC reviewing ABC's licenses early?
According to the filing, the FCC opened the unusual early review after Republican anger over an episode of The View that featured James Talarico, a Texas Democratic political hopeful. Carr threatened possible action against ABC’s broadcast licenses and said the show may have violated the FCC’s equal-time rule.
The equal-time rule generally concerns access for political candidates on broadcast stations. The dispute here turns on whether that rule applied to The View at all. Critics of Carr’s action, including the former FCC officials, say the program has been exempt from the FCC’s equal-time requirements since 2002.
Mark Fowler, a Republican who chaired the FCC from 1981 to 1987, criticized Carr in a companion announcement. “Just because the FCC issues licenses doesn’t make it the speech police,” Fowler said. He described the early renewal proceeding as evidence that Carr had lost touch with the FCC’s role.
Rachelle Chong, a Republican who served as an FCC commissioner from 1994 to 1997, also joined the criticism. “This proceeding is an effort to punish ABC and Disney for poorly disguised political reasons,” Chong said in the announcement. She added that the early review and allegations are unusual for a typical license review and suggest an effort to silence speech.
The filing was signed by former FCC officials including Kathryn C. Brown, Rachelle B. Chong, Jerald N. Fritz, Rosemary Harold, William T. Lake, Ruth Milkman, Dennis R. Patrick, Peter Pitsch, Alfred C. Sikes, Gloria Tristani, Tom Wheeler and Christopher J. Wright.
The ABC fight is not the only free-speech dispute involving Carr cited by the coalition. Several of the same former officials previously asked the FCC to rescind its news distortion policy, which they said Carr had used against broadcasters in ways that threatened journalistic independence.
The pressure campaign has already had practical effects, according to reporting cited by critics. Semafor reported that The View pulled back from booking political candidates after the FCC inquiry. ABC also paid $15 million in late 2024 to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.
Other conservative-leaning groups have objected to the FCC’s ABC review as well. Fox News reported that the Center for Individual Freedom, Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Tax Reform filed objections with the agency, warning that the proceeding could also harm right-leaning media.
This story draws on original reporting from Techdirt.
