Disney and ABC sue FCC on First Amendment grounds– www.washingtonexaminer.com
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EXCERPT:
Disney and ABC filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday over the federal agency’s order requiring the network to file an early license renewal request for all eight of its broadcast television stations.
The commission, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, issued the order years ahead of the normal schedule for license renewals. The commission has been investigating Disney’s alleged use of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, while simultaneously probing ABC’s morning talk show The View over a separate matter.
The plaintiffs claim the Trump administration is waging a “retaliatory campaign” against the Disney-owned company because “it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts” to the public.
“The Commission issued an unprecedented order requiring the Stations to file early applications to renew their licenses—years before any of their licenses would have come up for renewal in the ordinary course and allowing only thirty days to file applications which ordinarily take months to prepare,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote in the civil complaint.
“Until the day before that order issued, the Commission had not called for a renewal application ahead of schedule in more than half a century,” they continued. “Nor had it ever demanded simultaneous early renewal applications from a group of stations commonly owned with a single broadcast network—much less stations with the record of public service and award-winning journalism like these Stations.”