Disney and ABC Challenge FCC Review in Court

A federal court in Washington, D.C., plays host to a legal battle on Tuesday morning pitting the Walt Disney Co. against the nation's chief broadcast regulator over just how far First Amendment protections can go during the presidency of Donald Trump. President Trump has repeatedly called for Disney's ABC TV to fire late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who has consistently mocked the president. Trump has also routinely denounced ABC's The View, accusing it of being liberal and unfair. Trump had earlier sued the network, before returning to office, over incorrect statements anchor George Stephanopoulos made about the verdicts in writer E. Jean Carroll's two lawsuits against Trump. ABC paid $16 million in a December 2024 settlement, including legal fees, to resolve that a month before Trump went back to the White House. But new leadership has authorized a high-stakes fight against the administration in court, connecting with broader shifts as New Chairman at Helm: A New Direction for Disney outlines.

Regulatory Pressure on Local Stations

Brendan Carr, whom Trump elevated to be the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, has echoed the president's complaints. Under Carr, the FCC is moving to review Disney's ownership of all eight of the stations it owns, as part of the ABC Network, years ahead of schedule. That followed months of social media posts from Trump urging that the FCC strip ABC of its station licenses. Technically, networks do not require licenses from the federal government to operate, but stations do need them to utilize publicly owned airwaves. They are perennially reviewed on a staggered basis and are typically renewed without much fanfare. Carr has cited the requirement of stations to serve the public interest, initiated investigations of Disney's diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and, though he says the license review is not linked to ABC's content, he has blasted the network as biased.

Legal Arguments and Free Speech Concerns

Disney and ABC are seeking to get U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan to issue an order preventing the FCC from accelerating the typical review process. She had compelled the FCC to hold off from moving ahead until this hearing. Media advocates, FCC veterans and legal observers say the move to challenge all ABC's local licenses at once is unprecedented, and were it to be successful, it would hurt ABC badly in the bottom line, particularly as consumers monitor broader pricing dynamics analyzed in Disney+ and Hulu price hikes accelerate broader streaming inflation trend. Six of those eight stations are in major media markets and contribute significantly to the network's bottom line. Mark Fowler, a Republican former FCC chair under President Ronald Reagan, filed a statement to aid ABC's lawsuit in which he likened Carr's actions to censorship, stating that there is not even a question as to what Carr is doing and that his actions are unconstitutional.

Broader Industry and Political Reactions

Conservative groups, including the fundraising outfits for U.S. Senate and House Republican candidates, filed briefs to support the FCC and the president's complaints about bias, arguing that evidence of broadcaster intent to advance the candidacies of Democratic Party figures on The View is overwhelming. Even so, several groups often affiliated with conservatives have weighed in against the administration's case, including the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Policy Innovation. They note that Carr has roundly condemned ABC over its content, at one point saying on a right-wing podcast in September 2025 that ABC getting rid of Kimmel could happen the easy way or the hard way. ABC suspended Kimmel hours later over remarks he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, though the suspension was soon lifted after a public outcry.

Details From the NPR Report

As reported by NPR Business, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a friend of the court brief on ABC's behalf, hiring a former U.S. solicitor general who has argued repeatedly before the U.S. Supreme Court to represent the organization at the district court level. Bruce Brown, the president of the group, pointed at a series of other actions by Carr and other Trump appointees, noting that the FCC has launched investigations into all broadcast networks, including NPR, save Fox, which is controlled by the president's allies, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. Brown stated that the overreaching by the FCC is one of the greatest threats right now facing journalism, adding that the effort is designed to coerce out of news organizations the type of coverage the president wants to see.