First Amendment advocates blast the FCC's early review of ABC broadcast licenses
Source: NBC News
April 28, 2026, 4:36 PM EDT
Free speech advocates sounded the alarm Tuesday over the Federal Communications Commission’s challenge to ABC’s broadcast licenses, with some decrying the move as a threat to the First Amendment and a clear example of federal overreach. “The FCC is neither the journalism police nor the humor police. This is nothing but illegal jawboning intended to intimidate ABC into kissing the ring,” said Seth Stern, the chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit group.
The FCC, the federal agency that regulates the broadcast television industry, announced Tuesday it would launch an early review of the eight station licenses owned by ABC, a unit of the Disney media empire. In a public filing, the FCC said the review stemmed from a yearlong investigation of Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices. But a source with knowledge of the matter said it got fast-tracked after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a controversial joke about first lady Melania Trump.
President Donald Trump and White House communications director Steven Cheung have publicly called on ABC to fire Kimmel over his description of the first lady as an “expectant widow” during a parody of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner that aired last Thursday. Two days after that segment aired, a gunman allegedly targeting Trump administration officials opened fire outside the correspondents’ association event at the Washington Hilton. The president and first lady were rushed out of the ballroom.
ABC and Disney have not publicly addressed the White House’s criticism. Kimmel defended his remarks Monday, saying in part: “It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination.”. In a statement, a key nonprofit civil liberties group characterized the FCC’s early license renewal proceedings as a case of “viewpoint retaliation.”
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