FCC plans to challenge ABC station licenses amid Kimmel controversy

(CNN) — As the Trump administration pressures ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel, the Trump-aligned FCC is planning to challenge the network’s station licenses, setting up a legal battle with ABC’s parent company Disney.

The FCC is preparing to “call in all of the TV station licenses for Disney/ABC for early renewal,” a source familiar with the matter told CNN, confirming a report by Semafor.

The paperwork could be filed as early as Tuesday afternoon, the source said.

Station licensees have broad legal protection, but the early-renewal orders would be an extraordinary escalation by the Trump administration.

Disney had no immediate comment on the potential government action. The company has not weighed in on Trump’s Monday afternoon Truth Social post blaming Kimmel for Saturday’s shooting incident outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and saying he “should be immediately fired.”

But actions speak louder than words, and Disney’s actions have shown support for Kimmel. Airing his show Monday night was the strongest defense of all, particularly because the show was briefly suspended last fall amid an earlier campaign of government pressure against ABC.

In his Monday night monologue, Kimmel said his comment last week that has garnered so much criticism in the wake of the shooting — about First Lady Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow” — was a joke “about the fact that (Trump is) almost 80 and she’s younger than I am.”

Kimmel told viewers, “Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I and as are all of us, because under the First Amendment we have as Americans the right to free speech.”

The FCC’s early-renewal order to Disney, if delivered, would set up a First Amendment clash. The order would be widely viewed as a form of government retaliation for airing Kimmel’s show and resisting Trump’s pressure.

That’s because the Disney licenses in question — covering eight ABC owned-and-operated stations in cities like New York and Chicago — aren’t due to be renewed for years.

But FCC chair Brendan Carr signaled last month that he might take this step, writing on X, “The Communications Act authorizes the FCC to call in licenses for early renewal.”

The FCC had not filed an early-renewal order in decades, according to the source, until Monday, when the agency took action against a small station license holder called Bridge News. Details were not immediately clear.

The FCC order against Disney would trigger a lengthy hearing process, giving the ABC stations multiple chances to beat back the Trump administration’s pressure. But stations have to be willing to defend themselves, which costs time and money.

The source familiar with the matter told CNN that the FCC will claim the license review stems from an ongoing probe into Disney’s DEI practices, not the Kimmel controversy.

The FCC also sent a “letter of inquiry” to ABC about its daytime talk show “The View” earlier this year, signaling an investigation into whether “equal time” rules were violated. Liberal commentary on “The View” has long fueled conservative complaints about media bias.

The FCC’s enforcement powers are limited, which is why numerous analysts — and the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner Anna Gomez — have suggested that the process is the intended punishment.

Gomez said Tuesday, of the reported plan to take action against Disney, “This is unprecedented, unlawful, and going nowhere. This political stunt won’t stick. Companies should challenge it head-on. The First Amendment is on their side.”

Carr has not publicly announced any challenge to Disney’s licenses.

Press freedom advocates say the legal case against such a move would be straightforward.

“The First Amendment and the FCC’s mandate do not permit the agency to use broadcast licenses as weapons to punish broadcasters for constitutionally protected content they air,” Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. “Brendan Carr was once a serious communications lawyer, and has repeatedly and correctly said that the FCC has no role in policing content, whether news reporting or comedians’ late-night jokes.”

“Carr’s decision to abandon his principles to kiss up to Trump to advance his career does not change the law that Carr knows full-well applies,” Stern added. “The FCC is neither the journalism police nor the humor police. This is nothing but illegal jawboning intended to intimidate ABC into kissing the ring.”

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