Disney Moves To Protect Its Broadcast Licenses From Brendan Carr’s Sham Investigations
from the petty-witch-hunts-by-weak-men dept
If you recall, Trump FCC censor Brendan Carr recently launched numerous sham investigations of Disney/ABC because a comedian made fun of the President.
One of those sham investigations includes the bogus claim that Disney should be stripped of its eight broadcast licenses because the company is sometimes nice to women and minorities. Another involves the false claim that an ABC affiliate violated the law because an ABC affiliate broadcast an interview with Texas Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico without filling out the appropriate paperwork.
The inquiries are complete bullshit, but that hasn’t stopped the press from helping Carr pretend otherwise. And Disney and their lawyers have had to jump through costly hoops all the same.
Like last week, when Disney filed its application for broadcast license renewal, something an attached letter notes the company did “in protest.” It’s a pretty heated retort, as far as giant corporations go:
“WABC-TV (“WABC” or the “Station”) submits this license renewal application under
protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional Order issued on April 28, 2026, by the Media Bureau. The Commission had not demanded early renewal in over five decades. And it has never before demanded simultaneous license renewal applications from a group of stations commonly owned with a network as it has here.The Order has no legitimate purpose. There is no information that the application will reveal that the Commission could not obtain through other means. The Order is inconsistent with a legitimate exercise of investigative authority and is plainly incompatible with the First Amendment. Worse, the Order opens the door to an assault on the Station’s license, while the Commission searches for a legal pretext to achieve its desired goal. This effort to suppress speech under the guise of bureaucratic process must not prevail. WABC files this application without waiving any rights, and calls on the Commission to rescind the Order.”
Carr’s attacks on Disney are legally incoherent. But such assaults are not really designed to win in court, they’re designed to chill speech. They’re designed to send the message that if you criticize the president (whether via comedian or journalist), you’ll face all manner of costly legal headaches.
It’s a pathetic assault on the First Amendment, and while Trump early second tenure threats have had some notable successes among the country’s pathetic corporate media giants, the effectiveness will only dwindle as Trump’s polling, health, and political power wanes, leaving Carr holding an empty bag and a terrible reputation as a cowardly zealot.
Carr’s legal efforts are in particular hot water here given that, as one previous ABC filing indicated, he appears to have collaborated with right wing local broadcasters to create the illusion that ABC-owned Houston affiliate KTRK had violated the law. It’s just the sort of thing you’d hope would result in corporations thinking twice the next time they’re keen on electing censorial fascists.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, brendan carr, broadcast license, censorship, fcc, free speech, james talarico, jimmy kimmel
Companies: abc, disney
Comments on “Disney Moves To Protect Its Broadcast Licenses From Brendan Carr’s Sham Investigations”
A nice change of pace
Great to see Disney lawyers doing something besides trying to extend the stupid mouse copyright
Re:
…do you…
…do you not think Disney’s lawyers have done anything in the past 30 years
Im not a fan of Disney because of their past actions on copyright but even i know you don’t ppke a hornets nest of lawyers that big no matter who you are.
Re:
Disney lawyers are specially trained in the depths of Hell itself. You do not fuck with the House of Mouse unless you’ve got enough time and money to burn.
Re: Re:
In this case the trick is that it’s not Carr’s money.
Re: Re:
They’ve already got their own lawyers begging to be held in contempt and pleading laughable bullshit during criminal and asylum cases
Do you really think the Trump administration is bothered about taxpayer’s money or if there even is a DoJ left after all this?
Cruella De Carr
If only there were someone who had the money and talent, and could create a documentary to expose the the current FCC tactics to some light…
Re:
Expose them to light? They’re doing it right out in the open!
Going after licenses
I just wonder when in the future when the Democrats are back in charge, could they use the same tactics against
Fox News to cost them a lot of money and the silence them, using the precedent that the GOP set. I know that the conservatives will cry and holler about being attacked but it is the precedent that they themselves set.
Re: No, But
No, not for the stated reason.
But, however, Their broadcast license CAN be revoked for no longer being in the “Public Interest”.
FUX nooz personnel specifically stating they were working to ensure Republicans (specifically tRump) were the only candidates elected, makes them an arm of the GOP not a news organization. (they became a propaganda distributer instead)
... horray for corporate greed?
While I imagine normally this would be enough to cow Disney and get them to kneel in submission for once the ‘profits are the only thing that matters’ mindset that plagues large companies is working in the public’s favor because it wasn’t that long ago that Disney found out that sacking a popular comedian to appease the regime does not go over well with the US public and in fact ends up costing the company more than refusing to fight back saved them.
leaving Carr holding an empty bag and a terrible reputation as a cowardly zealot
But I’ll bet this doesn’t prevent him for getting a cushy job in the private sector after he’s done here. In fact, it might be a resume booster.