\n<\/p>\n
A group of prominent conservative organizations has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests from the eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC, accusing the network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting the Chinese communist party.<\/p>\n
The petitions come after the commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, took the nearly unprecedented step of requiring the network, a frequent recipient of attacks from Donald Trump, to apply several years early to maintain its ability to broadcast in markets around the country.<\/p>\n
While Carr has said the early license renewal process stems from an FCC investigation into ABC\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, petitioners are free to include a variety of grievances against the network and concerns about whether ABC is operating in the public interest.<\/p>\n
The petitions \u2013 part of an open process that allows anyone to argue that ABC is not fit to hold publicly owned television licenses \u2013 came from groups like the Center for American Rights, which has played a significant role during Carr\u2019s tenure atop the FCC agency as an initiator of complaints against major broadcast television networks.<\/p>\n
In a petition to deny filed last Monday, the group said the stations were not being operated \u201cin the public interest\u201d in part because ABC\u2019s programs \u201cshow a consistent and overt partisan bias\u201d, citing the group\u2019s past complaints about late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and the network\u2019s moderation of a 2024 presidential debate, among other concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cABC ignores long-standing Commission precedents and principles protecting the integrity of the news,\u201d the group wrote. \u201cABC engages in explicit racial and gender discrimination. ABC cozies up to the Communist Chinese Party and airbrushes over religious and ethnic cleansing. ABC fails to respect this Commission\u2019s rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization lobbied the FCC to deny ABC\u2019s renewal requests and to call the matter for a hearing, \u201cbecause the Petition and accompanying materials raise sufficient questions [about] whether ABC is operating in the public interest or remains worthy of the public trust\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Media Research Center, a non-profit conservative media watchdog group, filed a petition to deny the network\u2019s license renewal requests \u201cbecause of ABC\u2019s continued and sustained abuse of the licenses subject to the current review, its notorious efforts to improperly influence national elections, and its willful engagement in misinformation and the promotion of violence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The group claimed that ABC-owned and -operated television stations, in markets such as New York City and Los Angeles, \u201chave used public spectrum to suppress news coverage of the most critical stories of our day; to engage in electioneering and relentless political bias; to excuse, minimize, and even justify the epidemic of political violence; and to peddle misinformation and defamation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Article III Project, a legal group started by the conservative, Trump-aligned activist Mike Davis, focused its petition to deny on ABC parent company Disney\u2019s employment practices and efforts to hire a more diverse workforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commission should deny renewal of ABC\u2019s television licenses,\u201d wrote William Chamberlain, senior counsel for the organization. \u201cThe record demonstrates consistent and serious violations of federal [Equal Employment Opportunity] law. In the alternative, any renewal must include sweeping terms and conditions sufficient to eliminate all discriminatory practices and ensure future compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another petition was filed by the Trump-affiliated conservative advocacy organization America First Legal, which was co-founded by the longtime Trump aide Stephen Miller. The group claimed that ABC\u2019s stations \u201cdemonstrated a lack of the character qualifications necessary to hold broadcast licenses\u201d.<\/p>\n
The FCC accelerated the timeline for ABC\u2019s license renewals in April after the White House called for Kimmel to be ousted over a joke he made about Melania Trump.<\/p>\n
The FCC is also investigating whether the daytime talkshow The View violated equal time provisions around political candidates appearing on programs after an appearance by the Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who is polling strongly against the Republican hopeful Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n
The agency has set a 29 July deadline for opposition to petitions to deny. After a final 5 August deadline for replies, the matter would probably be handed off to an administrative law judge to hold what is essentially a full trial over the license process, which would involve discovery and depositions and witnesses \u2013 or the FCC\u2019s commissioners could choose to hold hearings themselves.<\/p>\n
During a 25 June FCC meeting, Carr told the Guardian that there was no clear timeline for the license renewal review \u2013 and appeal \u2013 process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s short, great. If it\u2019s long, great,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we got to apply the Communications Act and the provisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A group of prominent conservative organizations has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests from the eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC, accusing the network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting the Chinese communist party. The petitions come after the commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[2055,2389,2171,1630,6111,24755,13562],"class_list":{"0":"post-50937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-conservative","10":"tag-fight","11":"tag-heats","12":"tag-license","13":"tag-renewals","14":"tag-stations"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}