Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Kahl publicly denied on Thursday that the White House had put any pressure on him to launch an early license review of Disney's ABC television station. He emphasized that the move stems from an investigation that has been ongoing for more than a year and has nothing to do with the recent controversy surrounding talk show host Jimmy Kimmel's remarks.
Carr said at the FCC press conference: "This is a decision we made within the agency based on the progress of the enforcement. There was no pressure from the outside, no suggestions from the outside, and no external requests for action." He pointed out that the decision was based on a long-term investigation of Disney's "diversity, equality and inclusion" policy, and the agency believed that Disney was "not candid enough in submitting documents and seemed to be playing tricks on us."
Just one day before the FCC took action, U.S. President Trump and first lady Melania Trump had just publicly called on ABC to fire Kimmel because he said in the show that Melania had a "quasi-widow's glow." This close temporal connection has raised widespread questions about the government's use of regulatory agencies to crack down on political critics.
Serious divisions have also emerged within the FCC. The agency's only Democratic commissioner called the move "a clear pretext" and "the most egregious violation of the First Amendment." Even some Republicans have reservations about this. The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee said, "The FCC's duty should not be to act as a speech police." This early review involves ABC’s eight local TV stations in big cities such as New York and Los Angeles, whose licenses were originally scheduled to expire between 2028 and 2031.