SouthernWorldwide.com – Legal experts suggest that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would encounter significant challenges in revoking broadcast licenses held by Disney for its ABC television stations.
The FCC initiated an early review of ABC’s licenses on Tuesday. This review is part of an ongoing investigation into Disney’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. ABC operates eight television stations across the United States, including prominent affiliates in New York and Los Angeles.
The timing of this expedited review has raised questions, occurring shortly after President Trump publicly called for the dismissal of Jimmy Kimmel. This demand followed a joke made by Kimmel on his ABC late-night show, which reportedly displeased Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania Trump.
“This action appears to be a tactic to pressure Disney and ABC into altering their programming and terminating Jimmy Kimmel’s employment,” stated Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, to CBS News. She further characterized the FCC’s move as “highly suspect” given the circumstances.
Blair Levin, a policy analyst with New Street Research and a former FCC official, opined in a report that the “timing of the order is strong evidence that the motive for the early renewal process relates to the president’s call to fire Kimmel, not an ABC employment action.”
The FCC’s investigation into Disney, which commenced in March 2025, centers on whether the company’s DEI policies contravened federal anti-discrimination regulations. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr outlined these concerns in a letter addressed to then-Disney CEO Robert Iger. Carr alleged that ABC’s mandatory “inclusion standards” might have led to the implementation of racial and identity quotas throughout its production operations.
The FCC also claims that ABC engaged in race-based hiring practices and limited corporate fellowships to specific demographic groups. This investigation into Disney was part of a broader initiative by the Trump administration at the time to curtail DEI initiatives across various sectors, including employers, federal agencies, and educational institutions.
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Disney has not yet provided a comment on the matter. In a statement shared with CBS News earlier this week, a representative for the entertainment company asserted that Disney has a “long record” of adhering to all FCC regulations.
“We are confident that the evidence will demonstrate our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, and we are prepared to present this case through the appropriate legal channels,” the spokesperson added.
The FCC directed CBS News to remarks made by Chairman Carr at a press conference on Thursday. When questioned by a reporter about a potential link between the FCC’s request for early license renewals and Kimmel’s joke, Carr instead emphasized the agency’s allegations of discrimination.
“You can go all the way back to more than a year ago, in March of last year, where I wrote a letter to Disney saying that there was evidence… or allegations indicating that Disney, through this sort of invidious form of DEI discrimination, was creating, as I specified in a letter to them, racially segregated spaces inside the company,” Carr stated.
Carr also pointed out that the FCC recently issued a similar order to another broadcaster, Bridge News, requiring it to file early license renewal applications for its television stations. He reiterated the FCC’s commitment to holding broadcasters accountable for their obligations, not only concerning public interest standards but also equal employment opportunity requirements.
The FCC has historically been very reluctant to deny broadcast license renewals. One notable instance occurred in 1975 when the agency declined to renew five radio station licenses. This decision followed findings that the parent company’s owner had directed the stations to provide favorable coverage to two senatorial candidates, according to research by Chad Raphael, a communications professor at Santa Clara University.
The National Association of Broadcasters issued a statement on Wednesday emphasizing the need for predictability, fairness, and transparency in the license renewal process. The trade group argued that the FCC’s “nearly unprecedented request for one company to quickly reapply for all of its licenses — rather than utilize its traditional enforcement process — runs contrary to these principles and creates significant uncertainty for all broadcasters.”
The FCC possesses two primary mechanisms for challenging broadcasters’ licenses. The first involves declining to renew a license, a process that can be lengthy and during which the broadcaster can continue operations. The second, more severe action, is the revocation of a license, which effectively removes the broadcaster from the airwaves.
The FCC’s order to Disney on Tuesday did not explicitly state an intention to pursue either of these measures. However, legal experts note that while the FCC has the authority to revoke broadcast licenses, both actions face a substantial legal threshold. Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a public interest lawyer specializing in media law, told CBS News that “There’s no way they would try to revoke the license. The legal standard is insurmountable.”
Schwartzman further explained that “Revocation places the entire burden on the FCC to demonstrate that the broadcaster is engaged in the most gross forms of abuse of rules and misconduct.” Due to these stringent legal safeguards, the FCC has rarely, if ever, exercised its power to revoke a television station’s license, with the last known case occurring several decades ago.
Legal professionals also indicated that the FCC could opt to deny the renewal of ABC’s broadcast licenses, which are typically granted for eight-year terms. However, this path could also lead to a protracted legal battle spanning several years.
Robert Corn-Revere, chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy organization, explained that the FCC would be required to meticulously document how Disney’s diversity policies are discriminatory. This case would then need to be presented before an administrative law judge, who would then issue a decision on each ABC station license. Each of these decisions would be subject to appeal.
Corn-Revere also expressed skepticism regarding the FCC’s allegations of discrimination against Disney, suggesting they may be too weak to form the basis of a challenge to ABC’s licenses. “If they’re really just noticing issues on DEI, then they would not be able to get into the programming issues,” he noted. “And if they do list programming issues, they buy themselves a whole lot of trouble under the First Amendment.”
