{"id":575974,"date":"2026-07-30T19:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575974\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T19:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:28:09","slug":"abc-argues-that-early-license-review-by-fcc-is-retaliation-for-networks-coverage-abc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/575974\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC argues that early license review by FCC is \u2018retaliation\u2019 for network\u2019s coverage | ABC"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABC has pushed back aggressively against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for putting the network under an expedited license renewal process for eight local television stations it owns, charging in a lengthy filing that the process is payback for the network\u2019s editorial decision-making and coverage of Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: Accommodate the administration\u2019s view of what news coverage should look like or pay the price,\u201d lawyers representing the Disney-owned network wrote in a 109-page filing, submitted as a reply to petitions<\/a> from conservative media groups to deny ABC\u2019s licenses. \u201cThe tools vary; the objective does not: a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has denied that inquiries into the network relate to its editorial decision-making and instead said they stem from concerns about the company\u2019s employment practices and compliance with statutory obligations.<\/p>\n

ABC\u2019s lawyers pointed out how unusual it is for the FCC to demand that a group of network-owned stations apply several years early to renew their licenses. Other ABC-owned stations have licenses that run all the way until 2031.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commission\u2019s departure from those norms lays bare what is really going on: the administration is retaliating against ABC for the exercise of its First Amendment rights,\u201d ABC\u2019s lawyers wrote. \u201cBecause this whole proceeding rests on an unconstitutional premise, the stations should never have been asked to justify license renewal years early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding<\/a> to petitions to deny ABC\u2019s licenses based on accusations of liberal bias, the network\u2019s lawyers pointed out that the \u201ccommission has no authority to regulate the content of television programming\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Petitioner has established any \u2018violations\u2019 of Commission rules or regulations, let alone the \u2018serious\u2019 ones or the \u2018pattern of abuse\u2019 required to warrant denying renewal,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

ABC\u2019s lawyers also argued that its eight stations had made \u201cessential contributions to their local communities\u201d in markets such as New York City and Philadelphia and argued that the FCC should dismiss the petitions to deny their licenses.<\/p>\n

Participants have until 5 August to reply to petitions to deny. After that time, the FCC could choose to either grant the license renewal requests \u2013 an unlikely prospect \u2013 or schedule hearings on the matter, beginning a potentially onerous and time-consuming process that could run for several years, particularly if an adverse ruling is challenged in the courts.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a bipartisan coalition of former FCC commissioners and staffers submitted a filing<\/a> urging the commission to reject the petitions to deny ABC\u2019s license renewals, arguing that the early renewal process ordered by Carr\u2019s FCC in April is \u201ca grave violation of both the Communications Act and the Constitution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thousands of commenters have filed on behalf of ABC in both the license renewal inquiry and another FCC investigation into the daytime talkshow The View for a potential violation of rules guarding political candidate appearances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen given the chance to weigh in on whether to allow the FCC to continue its campaign of censorship and control, the American public showed up in a big way, and the vast majority who spoke up delivered the same message,\u201d Anna M Gomez, the lone Democrat on the FCC, said in a statement on Thursday. \u201cThey believe in the value of their local news, they trust those who cover their communities, and they understand that the FCC has no business deciding who is a journalist and what counts as real news.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC has pushed back aggressively against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for putting the network under an expedited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-575974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}