The Walt Disney Company and eight of its ABC television affiliates, including ABC7 in Los Angeles, sued the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday, alleging that the government agency has violated ABC’s constitutional right to free speech.
The suit comes after the FCC initiated an unusually early review of the eight stations’ broadcast licenses in April. Disney and ABC say the Trump administration is pursuing a political vendetta against the network for what it perceives to be biased reporting, along with the persistent criticism of the president by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and names also defendants FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty, and “John Does 1-2 in their official capacities as commissioners.”
In its complaint, the Burbank-based media conglomerate says the action concerns the administration’s “sustained effort” to “punish or suppress disfavored expression.”
“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. That campaign began in this Administration’s earliest days and has only intensified since. Again and again, the Administration has attacked ABC’s speech — the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air,” the complaint alleges.
“Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”
Attempts to reach the FCC for comment Tuesday morning were not immediately successful, but Carr has said broadcasters have a duty to operate in the public interest and the FCC is merely trying to restore that standard.
Hostility between the network and the Trump administration reached a boiling point on Sept. 15, days after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel, whose monologues have increasingly focused on ridicule and criticism of Trump over the years, made a remark about Kirk’s alleged killer being apart of the “MAGA gang,” which sparked immediate outrage from Trump and others on the political right who accused the comedian of distorting the truth since there was considerable evidence that the suspect leaned to the left politically.
ABC suspended Kimmel for a week, with many on the left accusing the network of caving to political pressure.
Of the license renewal reviews, the plaintiffs’ filing further states: “The Commission is poised to make good on its threat any day now: the public comment period on the renewal applications has closed, and the Commission may, at any moment, issue an unprecedented Hearing Designation Order for all eight stations, which would kick off a formal agency adjudication to determine the fate of ABC’s licenses.
” … Facing this existential threat, plaintiffs have no choice but to seek redress from the judicial branch … This court should immediately enjoin defendants from taking or threatening to take any action against plaintiffs in relation to the early license renewal applications, including issuing a Hearing Designation Order in connection with plaintiffs’ renewal applications.”