On Tuesday (August 18), ABC filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in federal court, claiming that regulatory actions and an investigation was part of the Trump administration’s agenda to restrict its free speech.
“Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts,” the lawsuit filed in Washington D.C. read. It names FCC Chairman Brendan Carr along with its two commissioners, Olivia Trusty and Anna Gomez.
The lawsuit includes references to the many attacks against ABC by President Donald Trump, including his demands for it to lose its license as well as his attacking a network reporter who questioned him about the Epstein files and his grievances over the 2024 Presidential debate that the network hosted.
It also brings up Carr’s threat to ABC after late night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about the investigation of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last September, in which Carr said on a podcast that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” adding that companies can get involved “or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” Kimmel would be off the air for several days afterward after two major station groups with affiliates claimed they wouldn’t air Kimmel’s show.
ABC’s lawsuit also declares that the FCC would use the time after a period of public comments on whether to renew the licenses for eight stations, declaring that “Any FCC adjudication would be a charade.” Carr called for the investigation last spring. None of the eight stations, which cover New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles among other cities, were up for renewal yet.
It then outlined how the FCC could use the adjudication as a weapon to prolong an investigation to cost ABC and its parent company, Disney, money or to outright “deny license renewal or immediately revoke the Stations’ licenses,” which would take ABC off the air entirely.
No other network has challenged the FCC directly via litigation, even as Carr and the FCC has launched multiple investigations against them, including CBS over its editing of an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
