Nicolai Haugsted
Disney claims Trump administration is using ABC licenses as leverage in escalating political dispute.
A dispute over television licenses has grown into a much larger fight over how far the federal government can go when dealing with news organizations that have angered the president.
Disney and ABC are now asking a federal judge to intervene, arguing that the Federal Communications Commission has crossed the line from regulation into retaliation. Lawyers for the companies say the consequences are already being felt inside ABC, where editors are allegedly changing programming decisions because they fear provoking Donald Trump and his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr.
Tuesday’s court hearing offered the first major test of that argument — and the judge had some pointed questions for the government, according to The Guardian.
Disney says ABC is already changing its coverage
ABC, Disney and the company’s television station group sued the FCC in August after the regulator ordered eight ABC-owned local stations to begin renewing their broadcast licenses years earlier than normally required.
Disney’s lawyers argue that the extraordinary timing was not simply an administrative matter.
“These are blatant violations of the US constitution,” attorney Beth Wilkinson told US district judge Loren AliKhan during Tuesday’s roughly two-hour hearing.
Wilkinson argued that repeated threats involving ABC’s broadcast licenses have created a “chilling effect” inside the network.
“That chilling effect has been happening and will happen every day,” she said, arguing that ABC is suffering “irreparable harm” to its ability to make independent editorial decisions.
According to ABC’s legal arguments, the effect is no longer hypothetical.
“Our editorial decisions are being affected right now,” Wilkinson told the court.
ABC says it has stopped booking politicians on The View and chose to put a Trump speech on its streaming service rather than its traditional television channel. Wilkinson said the network is particularly conscious of the stakes with the midterm elections approaching.
“We are watching everything we do,” she said. “We have already altered our conduct because of the fear of retaliation.”
Jimmy Kimmel interview was kept away from television
ABC also pointed to a recent interview conducted by Jimmy Kimmel with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico.
Rather than broadcast the interview on television, the network placed it on YouTube.
Wilkinson gave the court a remarkably straightforward explanation for that decision: it was done “because the FCC has no control over YouTube”.
Such examples form a central part of Disney’s case. ABC argues that Trump’s public criticism of broadcasters, combined with Carr’s previous comments about television licenses, means the early renewal process cannot be separated from the network’s editorial choices.
Trump and Carr have repeatedly accused major broadcasters of unfair political coverage, while the president has previously suggested that licenses should be jeopardized over programming he considers biased.
ABC wants AliKhan to prevent the FCC from taking further action against the eight licenses.
“We are asking to stop pure retaliation, putting us in a process that we should never have to be in,” Wilkinson said.
FCC says the dispute is about employment practices
Government lawyers offered a very different explanation.
Attorney Dimitar P Georgiev, representing the FCC defendants, argued that there was “no reason to believe the early renewal order has prompted changes to the plaintiffs’ editorial decisions”.
The FCC has linked its scrutiny to a separate investigation into Disney’s employment practices and potential violations of federal equal-opportunity rules.
Georgiev described the accelerated licensing process as a “tool” that could help speed up the commission’s review. He also said the process could potentially be ended early if ABC adequately complies with requests for documents.
Wilkinson immediately seized on that description, calling it a “fatal admission”.
Her argument was simple: if the unusual license review is being used as leverage in another investigation, Disney believes that undermines the government’s justification for forcing ABC stations through the process years ahead of schedule.
Judge presses government over the timing
AliKhan appeared particularly interested in why the FCC suddenly needed the license renewals brought forward.
The commission began investigating Disney’s employment practices last year and has been requesting documents since then.
“Why is it only in the summer that you determined that their responses were woefully inadequate?” AliKhan asked.
Questions also surrounded the decision to require all eight ABC stations to submit their renewal applications at the same time.
Carr’s own previous comments entered the discussion as well.
Back in July, the FCC chairman suggested that ABC’s decision not to show a Trump speech on its linear television network could be relevant to the commission’s examination of its licenses.
AliKhan questioned whether a dispute over documents really explained the escalation.
“It strikes me with all the comments that this was merely over a discovery dispute, what made this so different that you needed to call for an early license renewal?” she asked.
The judge also requested examples of other enforcement measures the FCC could have pursued without accelerating the licensing process.
