Disney Sues FCC Over 'Existential Threat' to Stations

The Walt Disney Company and its news division ABC have filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), alleging that the agency's license crackdown is an unconstitutional retaliation for their programming and political commentary.

The suit, which names FCC Chair Brendan Carr as a defendant, seeks immediate relief from the court, including a temporary restraining order to block the accelerated license renewal process launched by the FCC in April.

Disney argues that the early renewal order is an 'existential threat' to its stations and amounts to retaliation over ABC's programming. The company points out that the licensing process usually takes years, but was compressed into a 30-day period for eight Disney-owned ABC stations, which serve major cities including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, Fresno, and Durham, North Carolina.

The lawsuit claims that the Trump administration has used the FCC to punish ABC for content it dislikes, describing a campaign that 'began in this Administration's earliest days and has only intensified since.' Disney also argues that the early renewal order has 'no legitimate purpose,' as the FCC already has other ways to obtain necessary information.