FCC faces backlash over claims of pressure campaign against Disney, ABC

The Federal Communications Commission has become the center of a new fight over whether broadcast regulation is being used as political leverage, after Commissioner Anna M. Gomez accused the agency of pressuring The Walt Disney Company and ABC through an unusually aggressive licensing move.

In a May 11 letter to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, Gomez said the company was facing a “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control.” She argued that the pressure campaign began in earnest after ABC agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump, and said that settlement appeared to signal that the pressure worked. The dispute widened after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr ordered an early review of broadcast licenses for Disney’s eight ABC stations, even though those licenses were not otherwise due until 2028 or later under the normal eight-year cycle.

The FCC’s April 28 order directed ABC stations in Fresno, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Durham, Philadelphia and Houston to file renewal applications within 30 days, by May 28, 2026. The commission said it was investigating Disney, ABC and subsidiaries for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and FCC rules, including unlawful discrimination, and said early renewal was “essential” to that investigation. Disney responded that ABC has a long record of compliance with FCC rules and of serving local communities.

What makes the episode so sensitive is the difference between lawful oversight and viewpoint-based intimidation. Gomez said a revocation or denial of renewal would require public comment, a hearing before an administrative law judge, review by the full commission and possible federal-court appeals, a process that can take years. Broadcast licenses are ordinarily renewed on an eight-year cycle, and the FCC has not revoked a broadcast television license in more than four decades. That history makes an early renewal threat unusually potent, even if no license is actually pulled.

The broader context is more than a single licensing dispute. ABC also filed a separate petition on May 8 challenging an FCC equal-time investigation into The View, arguing the probe could “upend decades of settled law and practice” and chill protected speech for years or decades. Gomez said the FCC had answered the White House’s call to silence a critic, and called the early review the agency’s “most egregious action” yet in violation of the First Amendment. For Disney and the rest of the industry, the case has become a test of how far federal regulators can go before routine oversight turns into political retaliation.