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ABC, its parent company Disney and the eight ABC-owned stations whose licenses are affected took the rare step of suing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, claiming the agency’s political demand for early review of its broadcast licenses poses an “existential threat” to the First Amendment rights of the network.
(The FCC had ordered the early review of this license in April and of all eight licenses owned by ABC, years before they are set to expire. Licenses are typically issued for eight-year periods, but the demand from the federal government came after Jimmy Kimmel, an outspoken Trump critic, had infuriated the president, who has called for Kimmel’s firing.)
“Again and again, the Administration has attacked ABC’s speech — the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs air,” the network alleged in its lawsuit Tuesday. “Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech.”
