The FCC asked a federal court Thursday to dismiss the First Amendment lawsuit ABC filed against the agency, arguing that the Disney-owned broadcaster failed to establish that the FCC's early license renewal review for ABC s TV stations represents  retaliation  for disfavored speech.

ABC sued the FCC last month, alleging the commission was waging an  extraordinary assault  on its free-speech rights by threatening to pull licenses for its eight owned-and-operated local TV stations. The FCC continues to insist the ABC early license renewal was initiated out of the agency's investigation into  allegations of unlawful discrimination  in employment practices at Disney and ABC - and is unrelated to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr s comments about Jimmy Kimmel,  The View  or any other programming.

ABC's lawsuit alleged,  The Commission's true target is not the Stations' employment practices or their carriage of a single presidential address; it is the content of Plaintiffs' programming - and thus their speech. Because the Commission cannot regulate that content directly, it has used its review of the Stations' licenses as an instrument to the same end. 

Popular on Variety

In its Sept. 3 filing, the FCC disputed that framing. The agency's lawyers argued that  Because Plaintiffs do not establish the necessary  causal link between [their] protected speech and the early renewal proceedings,' they have failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of their First Amendment retaliation claim. 

The FCC's call for early license renewal came one day after Donald Trump and Melania Trump publicly criticized a joke Jimmy Kimmel made on his show (Kimmel said Melania had  a glow like an expectant widow ) - and Trump demanded that ABC fire Kimmel. On April 28, the FCC's Media Bureau issued an order requiring Disney  to file license renewals for all of their licensed TV stations within 30 days.  The station's licenses were otherwise not due for renewal until between 2028 and 2031. When Carr was asked at an April 30 press conference at the FCC if Kimmel's joke would play a part in the FCC's review of the ABC

#variety  #podcastdailynews