The FCC has ordered eight Disney-owned ABC stations to apply for early renewal of their broadcast licenses by May 28, citing an investigation into the company’s DEI practices.
The agency’s order regarding the expedited license review said the action was based on an investigation by Disney and ABC into possible violations of the FCC’s “prohibition against unlawful discrimination.” But the incident comes amid a MAGA uproar over Jimmy Kimmel’s joke about Melania Trump looking like a “pregnant widow,” made just days before a gunman apparently intent on assassinating Trump stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The frequency licenses of ABC’s eight stations are not scheduled to be renewed until 2028 at the earliest, and some of them do not expire until 2031, but it is unusual for the FCC to request an early review of television station licenses.
A Disney spokesperson said in a statement: “We have received an order from the Federal Communications Commission to begin an expedited review of the licenses held by ABC’s television stations. ABC and its stations operate in full compliance with FCC rules and have a long history of providing trusted news, emergency information, and public interest programming to our communities. , we believe that this record demonstrates our continued qualification as a licensee under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, and we are prepared to demonstrate that through appropriate legal channels.”As always, we remain focused on serving our audiences in the local communities in which our stations operate. ”
“The FCC is investigating the Walt Disney Company, its American Broadcasting Company, and its subsidiaries (collectively, “DisneyABC”) for compliance with their obligations as licensed broadcasters, the FCC’s Bureau of Media said in an order released Tuesday. Specifically, the FCC is investigating Disney’s ABC station for alleged violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and FCC rules, including prohibitions on the station’s illegal activities. discrimination. ”
“Although ABC maintains that it will respond to two FCC Letters of Inquiry (LOI) as part of this investigation, the FCC has determined that additional action is appropriate at this time,” the order continued. “Specifically, the FCC’s rules provide that the FCC has the authority to call for early renewal of a broadcaster’s license whenever the FCC deems the renewal application essential to the proper conduct of an investigation. Doing so allows the FCC to conduct ongoing investigations and ensure that the broadcaster is fulfilling its public interest obligations more broadly.”
The FCC has determined that seeking an early renewal of Disney’s ABC license “at this time” under the Communications Act’s public interest standard “is essential within the meaning of agency regulation. Accordingly, Disney’s ABC is hereby directed to submit license renewals for all licensed television stations within 30 days, i.e., by May 28, 2026,” the order states.
The eight local television stations owned by ABC are WABC-TV New York, KABC-TV Los Angeles, WLS-TV Chicago, WPVI-TV Philadelphia, KTRK-TV Houston, KGO-TV San Francisco, WTVD-TV Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and KFSN-TV Fresno, California.
Mr. Carr has threatened several times to use FCC regulators to revoke the licenses of television stations that air programs he finds objectionable, including Mr. Kimmel’s on-air comments last September about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Earlier this month, the FCC chairman suggested that ABC could be stripped of its television broadcast license due to Disney’s illegal DEI program. “If the evidence actually develops and shows that they engaged in discrimination based on race or gender, that would be a very serious issue for the FCC and could fundamentally implicate their character qualifications to hold their license,” Carr said in an interview on Fox News.
Critics have charged that Carr’s threat to revoke his television license amounts to a violation of the First Amendment, arguing that it is aimed at suppressing or punishing speech unfavorable to the Trump administration and its allies. Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democratic commissioner, said in a statement: “The effort to challenge the licenses of the ABC/Disney-owned stations is the FCC’s most egregious attack on the First Amendment to date. But it will fail. This should serve as a lesson to media companies that no amount of capitulation to the current administration will protect them.”
“The FCC’s decision to impose early license renewal on a Disney-owned and operated television station by Brendan Kerr’s FCC because of a joke in his late-night monologue is retaliation for a point of view,” Bob Cohn Revere, chief counsel at the advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights Expression (FIRE), said in a statement. “While the FCC may claim that these actions are based on DEI policies and have nothing to do with Jimmy Kimmel, the timing makes it clear that these justifications are a fig leaf. This campaign against disadvantaged broadcasters is, pure and simple, a violation of the First Amendment.”
Cohn-Revere added: “The First Amendment requires government officials to be strong enough to accept jokes, including those that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump consider to be in bad taste.”
Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the FCC “does not have the power to revoke a station’s license based on its political views. But this is not just about the rights of Disney and ABC. “If President Trump has his way, there will only be news outlets affiliated with the government, broadcasting only government-approved news and commentary. That will be difficult.” Imagine an outcome even more corrosive to democracy or even more offensive to the First Amendment. ”
Kimmel jokes on the Thursday, April 23, episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Featured a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner. President Trump and the first lady posted separate statements on social media on Monday calling on Disney and ABC to fire Kimmel after the host quipped that Melania Trump had the glow of a “pregnant widow.”
It happened two days before the actual WHCD descended into chaos after an armed man charged through the security perimeter outside the ballroom on April 25 before being arrested. The suspect, identified by authorities as Cole Thomas Allen of California, is charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump.
On Monday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” the late-night host defended his comments about Melania as “a very light joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 years old and she’s younger than me. It’s not a call for assassination by any stretch of the imagination. And they know it.”
Kimmel continued, “I’ve been very vocal over the years, especially against gun violence. But I understand that the first lady went through a stressful weekend. She probably has a lot of stress in that house every weekend. I also agree that we should reject hateful and violent rhetoric. I agree. And I think talking about that issue with my husband is the best place to address it.”
In September 2025, Kerr threatened to investigate the TV station for “news distortion” if Kimmel was not taken down (following Kimmel’s comments about MAGA trying to score political points in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder). Kerr threatened that if ABC and its affiliates “do not take action” against Kimmel, “we can do it the easy way or the hard way. Frankly, these companies will find a way to change their behavior and take action. If they don’t, the FCC will do more work down the road.” Kerr hinted that the FCC would pursue “news distortion” allegations against the local ABC station unless Kimmel was taken off the show.
Meanwhile, Carr has made similar threats on other occasions, including last month when the chairman implied that the FCC would not renew licenses for broadcast stations that engaged in “misinformation and news distortion” in the Trump administration’s coverage of the Iran war.
In addition, the FCC has begun enforcement proceedings over what Kerr claimed were violations of equal time rules involving political candidates on ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” over an appearance by James Talarico, a Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas.
The FCC chairman has previously maintained that he is not censoring anyone or opposing free speech. He claimed he was simply opposing “fake news” and doing his job to hold spectrum licensors accountable on a “public interest” basis.
That said, any charges brought by the FCC against television broadcasters for alleged “news distortion” will likely be tied up in bureaucratic proceedings for months or even years. That is before it goes to court, where it is likely to be challenged.
On Monday, President Trump slammed Kimmel over the sketch of first lady Melania Trump and called for his firing.
“Jimmy Kimmel, who is by no means funny, as evidenced by his terrible TV ratings, made some truly shocking statements on his show,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He showed a fake video that made it look like First Lady Melania and our son Barron were actually sitting in his studio listening to him, but they’re not, and they never will be. And he said, ‘Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look, Melania, you’re so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you’re pregnant. The next day, a madman tried to enter the White House Correspondents’ Dinner banquet room with a shotgun, a handgun, and numerous knives. I appreciate that so many people are outraged by Kimmel’s despicable calls for violence.”
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is aimed at dividing our country. His monologue about my family is not comedy. His words are corrosive and deepen the political ills in America,” Melania Trump wrote in a post on X hours before the president weighed in.
She continued, “People like Kimmel should never have the opportunity to enter our homes every night to spread hate. Kimmel, a coward, hides behind ABC because he knows the network continues to hide to protect itself. Enough is enough. It’s time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocities at the expense of our community?”
