A group of prominent Senate Democrats sent a letter on Thursday to Brendan Carr, the Trump-aligned Federal Communications Commission chair, asking him to rescind the US media regulator’s order last week requiring ABC to apply early to renew its television licenses.
The eight ABC-owned station licenses were not originally up for renewal until 2028 at the earliest and 2031 at the latest; now, the renewal requests must be filed by the end of May.
Although Carr told reporters that the early license renewal request stemmed from an ongoing investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts of ABC’s parent company, Disney, the announcement came just a day after the president and his wife called on the network to fire Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night comedian, for a poorly timed joke. The letter called the early renewal demand an “extraordinary abuse of power” and an “unconstitutional abuse of the Commission’s powers”.
“The campaign against Disney and its editorial decision-making, culminating in last week’s early-renewal order, is an egregious abuse of power and a clear violation of the First Amendment,” lawmakers state in the letter led by Senators Edward J Markey, Chuck Schumer, Maria Cantwell and Ben Ray Luján. Eight other senators also signed the letter.
“Although the FCC has the authority to ensure broadcasters operate in the public interest, it cannot serve as President Trump’s roving censor, threatening to revoke licenses against broadcasters whose editorial content – including a comedian’s jokes – displeases the President.”
The senators accused Carr of using the FCC’s licensing authority as “a cudgel against broadcasters whose editorial choices displease the President”.
The FCC has two other open investigations into ABC, including one based on a 2024 complaint about the network’s moderation of a presidential debate and a more recent inquiry into whether The View, the ABC show, violated equal time rules when it hosted James Talarico, a Senate candidate.
The letter includes a series of questions to Carr, with a request that they be answered by 21 May.
The senators asked Carr to “describe the timing and process” used by the FCC to determine that ABC should be forced to apply early for license renewal, and whether FCC lawyers reviewed the order.
The letter also asks Carr whether he or his staff communicated with the White House in the days before the order was issued. At an FCC meeting last week, Carr denied that there was any external pressure. “This was a decision that we made inside this building based on where we were in the enforcement matter,” he said. “There was no pressure from the outside. There was no suggestion from the outside. There was no call for agency action from the outside.”
In addition, the senators asked whether the FCC considered any less aggressive steps before issuing the order last week, considering the nearly unprecedented nature of the demand.
