The Walt Disney Company is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reject petitions seeking denial of license renewals for eight of its ABC-owned television stations, saying the proceeding is an unprecedented attempt to punish the network for programming disliked by President Donald Trump and his administration.
In a filing submitted July 29 and made public Thursday, ABC said petitions filed by the Center for American Rights and Media Research Center fail to identify any violation of federal communications law or FCC rules that would justify denying the renewals or sending the applications to a hearing.
“For the first time in history, the Federal Communications Commission has ordered an entire group of local television stations commonly owned with a broadcast network to undergo simultaneous license renewal proceedings well before their current licenses expire,” Disney and ABC said. “That makes these proceedings extraordinary and unprecedented.”
The FCC’s Media Bureau ordered Disney in April to submit early license renewal applications for ABC-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno. The agency has said the review is tied to an investigation into whether Disney and ABC diversity, equity and inclusion practices violated employment discrimination rules.
Disney filed the renewal applications under protest in May, describing the order as unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional.
ABC argued in its latest filing that the proceeding is rooted not in regulatory violations, but in objections to ABC programming and editorial choices.
“There is no question why the Commission is singling out these eight stations: Each is owned by ABC, and the Administration has openly and repeatedly called for the revocation of ABC’s licenses, because it dislikes the content and viewpoints expressed on ABC network programs,” the filing said.
The network said denying renewals based on disfavored speech would be “outright censorship” and described non-renewal as the “corporate death penalty.”
The petitions to deny accuse ABC of partisan bias, alleged election influence, misinformation and discriminatory practices. ABC said those claims improperly ask the FCC to regulate editorial judgment, including commentary on programs like “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The View.”
The filing also said the petitions came from national advocacy groups rather than the local communities served by the stations, though the company also helped facilitate public comment in support of its eight ABC-owned stations, according to letters sent to the FCC and reviewed by The Desk.
The ABC filing follows separate submissions from former FCC officials and advocacy organizations, including the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation, urging the agency to terminate the proceeding. Former agency leaders described the review as an attack on free speech disguised as regulatory process.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr recently said ABC’s decision not to carry a live July 16 speech by Trump on election security could be raised in the review. Commissioner Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democratic member, rejected the idea that broadcasters are required to air presidential remarks.
More than 150,000 public comments have been filed in the FCC’s ongoing probe against Disney’s broadcast licenses. The public comment window closed on Thursday.
