Disney’s ABC has submitted its license renewal applications for its eight local TV stations to the FCC as ordered by the agency — but said it is doing so “under protest.”
The FCC’s Media Bureau last month issued an unprecedented order forcing ABC to reapply for spectrum licenses for its eight owned-and-operated stations on an accelerated schedule. The move came just days after President Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke the late-night host made about First Lady Melania Trump.
The FCC, led by Trump-appointed chairman Brendan Carr, officially says the early ABC license review is pursuant to the agency’s investigation into Disney and ABC’s potential violations of discrimination rules via the media conglomerate’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. When Carr was asked at an April 30 press conference if the Kimmel joke would play a part in the FCC’s review of the ABC licenses, he responded that Disney is “going to have to come in and demonstrate that they’ve been operating in the public interest.”
In its filings, ABC does not directly cite Kimmel’s Melania joke — in which he said the First Lady had “the glow of an expectant widow” — nor does it explicitly allege that the FCC is retaliating against the network for disfavored speech.
