The uproar stemmed from Kimmel’s joke during a skit in which he pretended to give a roast at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “Our first lady, Melania, is here… so beautiful, Mrs. Trump, you glow like a pregnant widow,” Kimmel said. Kimmel also suggested in his showy roast that Trump and his wife were introduced to each other by Jeffrey Epstein.
ABC owns eight TV stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno. A Disney spokesperson told Ars today that the stations’ licenses were originally set to renew between 2028 and 2031.
“ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with reliable news, emergency information and public-interest programming,” Disney said in a statement to Ars. “We are confident that the record demonstrates our continued eligibility as licensees under the Communications Decency Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show this through the appropriate legal channels.”
“Revenge for a joke Donald Trump didn’t like”
Anna Gomez, the only Democratic FCC commissioner, said in a statement today that the Disney review “is the most serious action ever taken by this FCC in violation of the First Amendment. As part of its ongoing campaign of censorship and control, the White House has publicly called for the silencing of a vocal critic, and this FCC has now answered that call. This is an unprecedented and politically motivated effort to interfere in the operations of broadcasters, and it is an unlawful overreach.” This should be a lesson to media companies that no amount of submission to this administration will protect them. The only option is to stand firm in defense of the First Amendment.”
Media advocacy group Free Press said seeking early license renewal is “an extremely rare development.” Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. Gonzalez said, “Carr will try to dress this latest attack up like a legitimate FCC process, but his intentions are clear. He is using his position of power to silence dissent at the behest of the President… The timing of this move suggests unconstitutional retaliation for a joke Donald Trump didn’t like.”
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