ABC to federal judge: Trump’s FCC is holding our head on a ‘guillotine’
The ABC west headquarters is seen on Sunday
(CNN) — ABC argued in federal court Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s FCC has “chilled” the network’s free speech by using its “enormous regulatory power to coerce, threaten, punish” coverage the administration doesn’t like.
The Disney-owned network is seeking a preliminary injunction to block the FCC’s order requiring early renewal applications for all eight of the local stations it owns, even though those licenses don’t expire for years. ABC sued the government over the unusual order in August.
The license-renewal order was an extraordinary escalation of the administration’s months-long effort to pressure ABC and Disney, which has included Trump’s repeated calls for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel and the FCC’s probes into Disney’s DEI practices, ABC’s relationship with its local affiliates, and whether “The View” violated the so-called “equal-time” rule.
“We are chilled,” Beth Wilkinson, the attorney for ABC, told US District Judge Loren AliKhan during the nearly two-hour hearing. “We are watching everything that we do.”
Wilkinson cited ABC’s decision not to carry Trump’s July prime-time address containing unverified election claims, saying that editorial choice had provoked “the anger in the administration and the retaliation from the agency.” During the address, Trump attacked ABC for not airing it and threatened the network’s station licenses.
The threat of losing those station licenses, Wilkinson said, amounts to a “corporate death penalty” for ABC.
Invoking the French Revolution, Wilkinson compared the administration’s pressure to keeping the network’s “head on the guillotine” as it continues reporting, leaving ABC to “wonder if anything we say is going to make that come down.”
FCC lawyers argued that the US District Court lacks jurisdiction to review the agency’s license-renewal order and that ABC is a “regulated entity that is undergoing a review by its regulator” and cannot circumvent the regulatory process with this First Amendment case.
Brendan Carr, the Trump-aligned FCC chair, has repeatedly asserted that the fight is all about Disney’s DEI practices, though former FCC officials from both parties have cast doubt on that claim.
During an FCC meeting last week, Carr said Disney’s First Amendment lawsuit is a “very odd choice,” lodged “in the wrong court” and at “the wrong time.”
Wilkinson took aim at Carr during the hearing, saying that Trump has “total control” over Carr and that the FCC chair “understands his marching orders.”
The result, she said, has been “blatant violations of the US Constitution.”
Judge AliKhan did not issue a ruling on Tuesday. She gave both sides through Wednesday, Oct. 14, to provide additional materials and responses.
The-CNN-Wire
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