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Our reporting on the FCC dates back numerous years, with comprehensive coverage of the agency during the tenures of former FCC Chairs Tom Wheeler, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel. We expanded our coverage of the FCC under current Chairman Brendan Carr, with reports on the agency’s targeting of numerous broadcasters for their purported use of diversity and equity programs, threats to challenge broadcast licenses and the disparity in treatment of certain radio and TV station owners. Our investigative journalism focused on the FCC, its Media Bureau and regulated broadcasters have been cited by numerous industry groups, federal lawmakers, regulators and policy advocates over the past two years.
Dozens of former journalists associated with the Walt Disney Company’s broadcast network ABC have signed a letter pushing back against attacks levied by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
The letter, organized by former ABC News correspondent Lisa Stark and ex-ABC News senior producer Ian Cameron, was signed by more than 100 current and former correspondents associated with ABC News or one of eight ABC-owned, news-producing television stations.
Among those who signed the letter are Sam Donaldson, Tom Bettag, Chris Bury and Judith Miller.
The most-recent attack from the FCC centers on whether ABC-owned KTRK (Channel 13) in Houston made proper disclosures in its legally-mandated public inspection file about an interview conducted on the network daytime talk show “The View” with Texas Representative James Talarico.
Last week, attorneys for KTRK and ABC said the station didn’t feel it was necessary to make the disclosure since The View was granted an exemption to the FCC’s “equal time” rules after long being recognized as a news program.
The network also accused the FCC of selective enforcement, saying the agency has targeted a program critical of President Donald Trump while not scrutinizing conservative talk radio programs that feature candidates and administration allies.
The former ABC journalists echoed that argument in their letter, saying the inquiry could chill protected speech ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“Americans need more access to political news, not less,” the letter said. “A free press is not a partisan issue — it is the foundation of our democracy.”
A spokesperson for the FCC has not commented on the letter, but previously told journalists that the agency is reviewing whether The View qualifies for the “equal time” exemption. The rule requires licensed broadcast TV stations to provide an equitable amount of time to political candidates when one or more of their opponents appears on their air, but the rule typically doesn’t require news programs to do the same.
The FCC spokesperson said the “equal time” rule was necessary because it “encourages more speech and empowers voters to decide the outcome of elections.” The agency did not weigh in on Disney’s allegation that its broadcast stations were being treated differently from conservative AM radio programs, a few of which made explicit endorsements of political candidates in recent years.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democrat at the agency, added fuel to the controversy on Monday when she released a letter sent to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro that blew the cover off a purported conspiracy to entrap Disney and ABC into a violation of her agency’s rules.
Gomez said the agency’s Media Bureau notified nearly two dozen ABC affiliates owned by Nexstar, TEGNA, Sinclair, Gray Media and others about Talarico’s appearance and encouraged them to make late political disclosure filings in their public inspection reports. The affiliates were offered amnesty if they made the late filings, Gomez said, but Disney and KTRK were never given the same opportunity.
After the affiliates disclosed Talarico’s appearance, the Media Bureau then attempted to weaponize the situation against KTRK, sending letters to the station and Disney demanding to know why the Houston-based outlet had not disclosed Talarico’s appearance while numerous other ABC affiliates had.
Gomez said the Media Bureau “selectively pressured ABC affiliates in Texas to file late equal opportunity notices while offering them amnesty for doing so, then using the resulting inconsistency — that the Commission helped create — as evidence against (KTRK), which received no such offer.”
The matter involving The View is separate from an FCC probe into Disney’s use of diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) programs at ABC and other regulated business units, which was the impetus for an order last month that demands ABC renew the broadcast licenses of KTRK and its other seven ABC-owned local TV stations. The FCC has given Disney until the end of the month to do so.
