Brendan Carr calls in ABC licenses

    by Flint: Donald Trump

    Trump's FCC chair Brendan Carr is calling in Disney's ABC licenses early after scrutiny of their DEI practices. Carr says ABC should reverse course immediately, adding, "Broadcast licenses are not sacred cows. You have to comply with certain public interest obligations. #DonaldTrump

    Transcript (en)

    have ended up changing their practices. And that's a good thing, because I don't think Americans should be discriminated on based on protected characteristics. And so, at least with respect to the regulated space that we're in, that's what we're pushing towards at the FCC, and I think it's a good result. We've been looking at prediction markets. I'm not sure how reliable any of us think they really are, but this is a good question. Will the FCC pull a Big Four TV station license by April 1, 27? 22%. would you take the over or under? Well, I had not seen that yet. What I can tell you is obviously we've called in Disney's ABC licenses early for early renewal. That's pending before the FCC. There have been petitions to deny the renewal of those station licenses. Disney now is in the process of being able to file in response to that. And we're going to look at what the arguments are. But ultimately, if Disney has not been operating its ABC TV stations in the public interest, over the last several years, then that's a pretty long putt for them. But ultimately, we have not made our decision yet, but we'll be guided based on the record before us. But of course, we're open-minded to that type of outcome, whether it's for Disney or others. As I said before, broadcast licenses are not sacred cows. You have to comply with certain public interest obligations to get them and to maintain them and to renew them. If there's nothing you could do to ever lose a license, then it's not a license. It's something entirely different. And so we do want to take a hard look at broadcasters as a general matter and make sure they're living up to, again, that fundamental deal the American people were supposed to benefit from.