Federal regulators on Tuesday ordered a review of all station licenses owned by ABC, an extraordinary move to pressure a major television network whose programming has frequently angered President Trump.<\/p>\n
The agency overseeing the review, the Federal Communications Commission, said in a filing<\/a> that the action was related to an investigation into ABC\u2019s diversity and inclusion policies. But it came in the middle of a fight this week between Mr. Trump and the network\u2019s late night host, Jimmy Kimmel, that prompted the president to demand that ABC fire Mr. Kimmel.<\/p>\n The license review represented an escalation by the Trump administration and the president to punish major media outlets for their coverage. Mr. Trump has personally sued several news organizations, including The New York Times, and the Pentagon has tried to sharply restrict news media access.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s F.C.C. chairman, Brendan Carr, has repeatedly threatened to take action against broadcasters, including to take away their valuable station licenses. His agency\u2019s action on Tuesday was the first direct step toward potentially doing so.<\/p>\n It is extremely difficult for the government to take away stations\u2019 rights to broadcast; it must be able to make a convincing case that the stations had shown a pattern of violating rules and regulations. Even if the F.C.C. ultimately decides to block the renewal of ABC\u2019s station licenses, the network will have ample recourse in the courts. And it would be able to continue to broadcast as the fight played out.<\/p>\n The federal government has never before ordered such a sweeping review of a major television network\u2019s licenses, which allow the companies to broadcast in local markets. All told, ABC owns eight of the more than 200 local stations that carry its programming across the country, in vital markets including New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Still, the move all but guarantees months if not years of legal wrangling that would lock the network in an expensive, running war with the federal government.<\/p>\n ABC\u2019s parent company, The Walt Disney Company, said in a statement that it had long complied with F.C.C. rules and that it was \u201cconfident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n Media lawyers and free speech advocates have decried the action.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about as extreme an action as I\u2019ve ever seen the F.C.C. take against a broadcaster for frivolous reasons,\u201d said Gigi Sohn, a senior staff member at the agency during the Obama administration. \u201cIt\u2019s a message to every other network, \u2018Watch yourself, you might be next.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in a statement on Tuesday that if Mr. Trump \u201cgets his way, we\u2019ll have only government-aligned media organizations that broadcast only government-approved news and commentary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be difficult to imagine an outcome more corrosive to democracy or more offensive to the First Amendment,\u201d Mr. Jaffer added.<\/p>\n Under normal F.C.C. protocol, ABC would not have to apply to renew any of its station licenses \u2014 which run on eight-year terms \u2014 until 2028, as Mr. Trump would be coming to the end of his presidency. (And some of its licenses do not come up for renewal until 2030 and 2031.)<\/p>\n But a little-used provision of the law allows the F.C.C. to force stations to apply for renewal of their licenses at any time, opening the door to an early refusal to renew.<\/p>\n Mr. Carr walked through a theoretical version of the process in a podcast released on Tuesday, shortly before his agency filed for the review. \u201cYou can accelerate when a license comes due and say, \u2018Hey, we have significant concerns about how you\u2019re conducting your operations,\u2019\u201d he said on \u201cThe Katie Miller Podcast.\u201d \u201c\u2018We want to review your license now, and decide if you\u2019re in the public interest.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The process provides Disney with 30 days to file its application to renew its license. If the F.C.C. decides to deny the application and revoke the licenses, Disney will have a chance to plead its case at a hearing.<\/p>\n The agency has some leeway to decide the venue for the hearing, according to a person with knowledge of the F.C.C.\u2019s thinking. It could conceivably take place before the F.C.C.\u2019s commissioners: two Republicans, Mr. Carr and Olivia Trusty, and one Democrat, Anna Gomez, who spoke out<\/a> against the license review on Tuesday. Agency actions require a simple majority vote.<\/p>\n But Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime public interest lawyer involved in media regulation issues, said typically at the F.C.C. \u2014 and this instance is far from typical \u2014 the issue would go before the agency\u2019s administrative law judge.<\/p>\n Mr. Schwartzman added that he regarded the case as \u201call bluster,\u201d emphasizing how hard it is for the government to pull station licenses.<\/p>\n License revocation, which has been rare, requires the government to establish that a license holder has exhibited patterns of serious violations. Even in previous cases<\/a> where stations faced allegations of political favoritism, they were mixed in with suspicions of fraud and lying to regulators. More generally, the law forbids the F.C.C. to use its regulatory power to censor.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if this weren\u2019t frivolous to begin with,\u201d Mr. Schwartzman said, \u201cthe legal standard for denying a license renewal is almost insurmountable.\u201d<\/p>\n In its filing on Tuesday, the F.C.C. indicated the decision to call for the early license reviews stemmed from an investigation, started in early 2025, into whether Disney violated F.C.C. rules, \u201cincluding the agency\u2019s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.\u201d It had come<\/a> after an executive order<\/a> banning what the administration referred to as \u201cillegal and immoral\u201d D.E.I. programs in the federal government.<\/p>\n The F.C.C. has also started an investigation into the ABC show \u201cThe View,\u2019\u2019 over equal-time rules that apply to appearances by political candidates.<\/p>\n But there was no mistaking the timing of Tuesday\u2019s action, plans for which were reported earlier by Semafor.<\/p>\n It came one day after President Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, both called for the firing of Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he delivered in his monologue on his ABC late night show last week.<\/p>\n On \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d last Thursday, Mr. Kimmel imagined he was the M.C. of the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner, and, pretending to address Mrs. Trump, said that she had the \u201cglow\u201d of an \u201cexpectant widow.\u201d<\/p>\n That gala was ultimately canceled on Saturday after a 31-year-old man carrying deadly weapons breached security just outside the hotel ballroom. He has since been charged with trying to assassinate President Trump.<\/p>\n Mrs. Trump criticized Mr. Kimmel\u2019s comments on Monday morning, saying that he \u201cshouldn\u2019t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.\u201d Hours later, Mr. Trump said on social media that the ABC host \u201cshould be immediately fired.\u201d<\/p>\n