Disney‘s ABC filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, raising the pitch of the company’s efforts to countermand unusual pressure from the Trump administration to force the company’s stations to submit licenses for early renewal proceedings.
ABC has found itself at cross purposes with the FCC at several moments in recent months, with the Trump administration taking issue with monologues from late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and commentary on the daytime roundtable program “The View.”
In its filing with U.S. District Court for District of Columbia, ABC’s lawyers said the company was being punished for editorial decisions and news coverage and had “no alternative means to eliminate these ongoing and immediate threats other than total capitulation to the Administration’s demands. “The company also said the Trump administration had “attacked ABC’s speech” on multiple occasions, including “the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air. Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”
In a separate filing, ABC sought a temporary restraining order against the FCC renewal efforts as well as a preliminary injunction.
Disney’s recently appointed CEO, Josh D’Amaro, signaled earlier that the company was prepared to battle the government. “We’re very principled on this. We’re going to stand up to what we believe is journalistic integrity,” D’Amaro said during a recent interview with CNBC. “And we’re not going to be told how to run that side of our business.”
Disney has for the past several weeks grappled with unorthodox pressure from the Trump administration. The FCC, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, ordered Disney to file for renewals for ABC’s eight owned-and-operated stations years ahead of schedule. In filings, Disney has said its applications were made “under protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional order.” “The View,” which has thrived in recent years with discussion of politics, has also found itself in the administration’s cross-hairs. The FCC has probed whether the program has violated so-called “equal-time” election laws following the appearance of political figures, launching its investigation after James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate from Texas, appeared on the show in February. The FCC issued new guidance in January that late-night and daytime hosts needed to give equal time to political candidates from various parties, claiming the programs might be working along partisan lines.
ABC suggested in its filing that the company now had to weigh whether its business decisions would cause harm due to the situation with its stations.
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“With the threat of non-renewal or revocation of its Stations’ broadcast licenses on the line, ABC cannot ignore the consequences of any decision that might anger the Administration or the FCC Chairman,” the company said. On July 16, for example, ABC decided to livestream an address from President Trump, which it did not present live on ABC after using “editorial judgement.” The livestreaming decision was something the company “ordinarily would not have done.”
Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner serving at the FCC, applauded Disney’s effort in a statement. “I have long called on companies to push back against this kind of government intimidation, and I’m glad Disney has shown courage and stepped up. This should be a welcome sign for every broadcaster who has felt the weight of this overreaching government pressure in silence,” she said, adding that she was “hopeful” the ABC suit would “mark the beginning of the end of this administration’s disregard for the Constitution and the law, and that the coming months will bring the costly legal defeat this agency has been asking for since it started down this path.”
Ultimately, ABC said, the FCC proceedings have placed the company in an untenable situation.
“The Commission’s true target is not the Stations’ employment practices or their carriage of a single presidential address; it is the content of Plaintiffs’ programming—and thus their speech,” ABC said in the court filing. “Because the Commission cannot regulate that content directly, it has used its review
of the Stations’ licenses as an instrument to the same end.”
From Variety US