The network accused the agency of "unconstitutional retaliation and coercion" in an extraordinary objection letter filed alongside its applications
Credit: Craig Adderley, Pexels
Disney $DIS's ABC submitted renewal applications for eight of its owned television stations on Thursday, according to CNBC, accompanied by a declaration that the filings were made "under protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional order" from the Federal Communications Commission.
The filings came one month after the FCC ordered ABC to submit early renewal applications for all eight stations — years ahead of their scheduled expiration dates. Under their original schedules, the eight stations' licenses would not have required renewal action before 2028, and several were not slated to lapse until 2031. ABC's objection letter pointed to the rarity of what the FCC was asking: The agency had not issued an early renewal demand of this kind in more than 50 years, the network said, and had no precedent for ordering all stations affiliated with a single network owner to refile at the same time.
The network contended in its filings that the early-renewal order had no legitimate grounding in the agency's DEI probe and ran afoul of the First Amendment. "The order has no legitimate purpose," ABC wrote, adding that it was "plainly incompatible with the First Amendment." Charging the FCC with "unconstitutional retaliation and coercion," ABC said the agency's real aim was clear from the order itself: "to suppress speech — to ramp up toward possible license revocation and cause the Station and others to think twice before they say something the government might dislike."
In a Thursday statement, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pushed back on ABC's characterization, arguing that Disney had submitted the applications only after the FCC concluded its responses to the ongoing probe had been "disingenuous, deficient, and improper." Carr pledged that the commission would "follow the facts and law wherever they may lead."
The accelerated license review was issued in close proximity to public calls by President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for the dismissal of ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over remarks he made on air. Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat among the FCC's current commissioners, was particularly sharp in her response, describing the early-renewal mandate as "naked political retribution and an unlawful assault on free speech and a free press" — a view echoed by critics outside the agency.
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