Disney’s ABC sues FCC over Trump admin’s alleged – Business News
Disney’s ABC on Tuesday sued the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the Trump administration of a “retaliatory campaign” to silence the community’s lefty exhibits because the battle over its broadcast licenses heats up.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Washington, DC, federal court docket, seeks a momentary restraining order and preliminary injunction on the FCC’s review of eight of Disney’s licenses – together with ABC channels in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – in addition to a DC Circuit Court listening to.
“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,” the lawsuit stated.
The hosts of ABC’s daytime speak show “The View” additionally steadily bash the Trump administration. ABC/The View
“Again and again, the Administration has attacked ABC’s speech – 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.”
The FCC didn’t instantly reply to The Post’s request for remark.
In March 2025, FCC Chair Brendan Carr launched a probe into whether or not Disney was nonetheless participating in DEI insurance policies that the Trump administration has tried to crack down on by means of a collection of govt orders.
Tensions escalated earlier this yr in April, when Carr initiated a renewal course of of ABC’s licenses a yr forward of schedule, accusing the community of failing to cooperate with the DEI investigation.
The early review was launched within the midst of a heated feud between ABC’s late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel and President Trump, after Kimmel joked that First Lady Melania Trump had a “glow like an expectant widow” after two assassination makes an attempt on the president – and simply days earlier than a third.
Trump swiftly renewed his requires Kimmel to be fired. The president had beforehand slammed Kimmel for his remarks in regards to the stunning assassination of conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk, which resulted in ABC briefly yanking Kimmel off the air.
The hosts of ABC’s daytime speak show “The View” – together with Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar – additionally steadily bash the Trump administration, together with an on-air spat with Vice President JD Vance.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr, then Trump’s meant nominee, (left) and President Trump (proper) converse at a SpaceX rocket launch in Texas in November 2024. Getty Images
In its grievance, ABC alleged the timing of the early review reveals the FCC’s “true purpose: coercing and retaliating against a network that refuses to bow to the Administration’s demands.”
“If the Administration gets its way, the message to every media company in the country will be unmistakable: tell only the stories the Administration deems favorable, or face the coercive machinery of the federal government,” ABC wrote within the lawsuit.
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“Facing this existential threat, Plaintiffs have no choice but to seek redress from the judicial branch for the Administration’s blatant retaliation for their First Amendment speech,” the lawsuit continued. “Plaintiffs come to this Court reluctantly with no alternative means to eliminate these ongoing and immediate threats other than total capitulation to the Administration’s demands.”
It nodded to a number of remarks from Trump, together with a Truth Social post in December 2025 wherein the president instructed that networks that “are almost 100% Negative” of their protection of him ought to have their “very valuable Broadcast Licenses” revoked.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr launched the review of ABC’s licenses a yr early. REUTERS
Carr has repeatedly defended the FCC’s license renewal review, saying it isn’t about free speech however slightly the requirement that broadcast networks “operate in the public interest.”
In the lawsuit, ABC famous that the early review of its licenses has “drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum,” saying that conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz just lately warned in regards to the risks of a politicized FCC.
Two conservative media watchdogs – the Media Research Center and Center for American Rights – have submitted filings urging the FCC to not renew ABC’s licenses, accusing the community of partisan electioneering and spreading misinformation.
Carr has a historical past of choosing up petitions from watchdog teams, together with an FCC grievance in 2024 that accused CBS News of information distortion in a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris that was allegedly edited to make her solutions seem more coherent.
The Biden administration had dismissed the grievance, nevertheless it was reopened by Carr when he turned chairman in January 2025. Paramount – which owns CBS – in the end agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit alleging the episode was deceptively edited.
