Disney’s ABC challenges FCC, escalating fight over free speech
Walt Disney Co.’s ABC is strongly resisting efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to moderate the network’s programming, accusing the federal agency of overreach that violates 1st Amendment freedoms.
Last week, the FCC took the unusual step of requesting the licenses of eight Disney-owned television channels for early review. The move, widely interpreted as an effort to chill the network’s speech, came a day after President Trump demanded that ABC fire late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump.
The FCC also took aim at ABC’s daytime talk show “The View,” which delves into politics.
The FCC questioned whether the show, which features Trump critics Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, could continue to seek exemptions from rules that require broadcasters to provide equal time to opponents of political candidates.
Disney’s Houston television network escalated the dispute over “The View,” saying in a filing to the FCC this week that the commission’s actions were “unprecedented” and “beyond the Commission’s authority.” The ABC station’s petition for a declaratory judgment said “The View” has long been characterized as a “bona fide” news interview program that is legally free to interview qualified political candidates.
“The commission’s actions threaten to overturn decades of established laws and practices and chill critical protected speech, both on The View and more broadly,” Houston station KTRK-TV said in the filing.
The network’s hard-line stance is leading to conflict with the Trump administration, including the president’s handpicked FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who has made no secret of his disdain for Kimmel and other ABC programs. Earlier this year, Carr announced that decades-old exemptions from the so-called “equal time rule” for news programs, including “The View,” were no longer valid.
ABC’s compelling arguments mark a departure from the Disney-owned outlet.
In December 2024, a month after Trump was elected to a second term, the network quickly settled a lawsuit over comments made by news anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump found offensive. ABC agreed to pay Trump $15 million to end his legal fight; This sparked a backlash from free speech advocates, who accused the network of caving in on a case it could have won.
“Some may dislike certain or even many of the views expressed on The View or similar programs,” the station said in its filing. “But such discontent cannot justify the use of regulatory processes to restrict such views. The government cannot decide ‘what shall be orthodox in matters of politics, nationalism, religion or other views’.”
The station questioned the FCC’s exemption for “The View,” which dates back to 2002, while noting that the FCC has shown no interest in regulating programming on other networks, “including many conservative and liberal voices in broadcast radio.”
“The danger is that the government decides which perspectives to regulate and which not to disturb,” the ABC said.
On April 28, Carr called for a review of Disney’s broadcast licenses two years before any of them expire, citing the agency’s year-long investigation into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies and whether they violate federal anti-discrimination rules.
