Key Points
- More than 38,000 public comments have been filed with the FCC since the Walt Disney Company and ABC began a public outreach campaign this week.
- Most of the comments are critical of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and President Donald Trump’s prolonged efforts to censor the network for programming viewed as politically unfavorable to them.
- ABC owns licensed TV stations in eight cities; their broadcast licenses are currently up for renewal.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has experienced a barrage of public comment filings since the Walt Disney Company’s ABC broadcast network and eight local television stations began soliciting viewer support this week, according to a search of documents by The Desk.
The public outreach campaign started this week when ABC began informing viewers of its daytime talk show “The View” that the FCC was attempting to use its enforcement abilities to determine who can appear on the program. The warning is rooted in numerous letters sent by the FCC’s Media Bureau inquiring about the network’s decision to air an interview with Texas Representative James Talarico, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, without disclosing it in the public inspection file of its licensed TV station in Houston.
In April, the Media Bureau said numerous ABC affiliates throughout Texas updated their public inspection files to note Talarico’s appearance as part of their requirements under the FCC’s “equal time” rules, which requires broadcasters to set aside equitable time for political candidates when an opponent appears on TV. One month later, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez — the only empaneled Democrat — said the controversy was of the FCC’s own doing, because the Media Bureau notified local ABC affiliates about the matter and promised them amnesty for late disclosures.
That same opportunity was never afforded to KTRK (Channel 13), the ABC-owned station in Houston, Gomez noted. Instead, the FCC weaponized the late disclosures made by ABC affiliates as evidence that ABC’s own stations were not complying with the rule, she complained.
That same month, ABC was also ordered to renew the broadcast licenses of KTRK and its seven other TV stations over the company’s purported use of diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) programs in its hiring and promotional practices. Those other stations include ABC outlets in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno.
On Monday, the eight local TV stations began airing separate but related public service announcements about the license renewal, warning viewers that the FCC could revoke their broadcast licensees and encouraging them to submit public comments.
The messages included a quick reference (QR) code and a link to a webpage on the website of each local stations, which directed viewers on where and how to submit public comments into the FCC’s docket.
Even before the announcements began airing, ABC’s local TV stations began drumming up public support from viewers by reaching out to a few directly, according to two sources who spoke with The Desk on background. Stations in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City contacted prior subjects of their investigative and consumer reporting, and provided them with guidance on how to write a letter addressed to FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch about each station’s public service commitments.
Copies of the letters reviewed by The Desk showed similarities in structure and tone: Three letters submitted on behalf of viewers in San Francisco and New York included the FCC facility number of each station — something audiences wouldn’t ordinarily know — and included near-identical structure in how the letters were addressed.
Comments submitted electronically were more casual in tone, with many accusing FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of engaging in a concerted censorship campaign against ABC and other networks at the behest of President Donald Trump, who appointed him to the role early last year.
More than 38,000 public comments were filed as of Wednesday afternoon, The Desk noted. The FCC does not require commenters to use their legal names or to be based in an area where ABC owns the local TV station.
At an organizational level, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) — a group that has worked to curry favor with Trump and Carr to push through various broadcast-related initiatives at the regulatory level — criticized the agency for calling in ABC’s broadcast licenses early, saying the practice had the potential to cause chaos and confusion among radio and TV stations that rely on a smooth regulatory system.
“Broadcast stations already face intense challenges as they work to deliver trusted journalism, lifesaving emergency services, community programming and election coverage,” NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said in a statement. “The FCC must be careful to avoid actions that create further instability for the local stations viewers and listeners depend on.”
