A group of former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officials is speaking out against the early license review of Disney-owned ABC stations.

Review Statement

According to Reuters, in a filing from today (July 28), a group of former FCC commissioners and staff signed in opposition to the early license review. That group includes Mark Fowler, a member of the Republican Party who served as chairman from 1981 to 1987. The filing said, in part, that the early license review was “an assault on free speech ⁠disguised ​as ​regulatory process.”

Back in April, it was reported that the FCC was ordering reviews of eight Disney-owned ABC stations two years earlier than expected.

The FCC issues eight-year licenses to individual broadcast stations and has not revoked a license in over 40 years. The Disney licenses were not scheduled for review until October 2028.

At the time, the FCC said early renewal was related to its investigation of Disney’s DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives. However, the early renewal order came one day after President Donald Trump called for the firing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over his “widow” Melania Trump joke.

ABC has now submitted its license renewal applications early to the FCC as ordered, but not without protest. “It is an extraordinary demonstration of power and coercion directed at disfavored editorial voices which sends a clear warning to every broadcaster in America,” the company said in a filing with the agency. “This is a threat to the First Amendment that this Commission and this proceeding must not be permitted to normalize.”

ABC’s filing also stated that the “true purpose and inescapable effect” of the FCC’s order “are to suppress speech – to ramp up toward possible license revocation” and cause the stations “and others to think twice before they say something the government might dislike.”

Multiple U.S. Senators previously called for the FCC to rescind its early broadcast license renewal order against Disney, calling the order “the latest and most extreme step in your use of the FCC’s licensing authority as a cudgel against broadcasters whose editorial choices displease the President.”

This is not the first time ABC has called out the FCC for overreach. In May, ABC accused the FCC of violating its First Amendment rights after a minor dispute over the talk show, The View.

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