There is nothing new about the Trump Administration attempting to retaliate against press organizations based on the nature of their coverage. There have been numerous such incidents. Most recently, the White House press credentials of reporters for three major news organizations—MS NOW, CNN, and Politico—were pulled. (Full disclosure, I am Senior Advisor to Versant Media, the parent company of MS NOW).
Even prior to this latest skirmish with the press, the Federal Communications Commission's alleged retaliation against Disney for its news coverage has faded deeply into the background. Cutting through the FCC Chair’s disingenuous claim as to the basis for the investigation, this case is really all about the Trump administration’s distaste for views expressed by ABC personalities and coverage of the Trump administration by ABC News. In other words, the FCC is doing the Trump administration’s bidding in trying to punish ABC for exercising its First Amendment rights.
In investigating Disney, the FCC has also raised the possibility that Disney-owned television stations, including WABC-TV in New York and KABC-TV in Los Angeles, could lose their licenses. As a longtime media industry executive who has regularly provided commentary on the industry, I have put forward many public critiques of Disney’s business performance and business strategy. However, I want to state unequivocally my total support for the Magic Kingdom company in its fight against the FCC and its current chairman, Brendan Carr.
Carr ordered early renewal reviews of Disney’s eight broadcast station licenses, even though they were not due to be considered until October 2028. The proceedings raise the possibility that the stations could ultimately lose their licenses. The Trump White House was well aware of the considerable First Amendment case law governing the removal of White House press credentials.
A federal judge nevertheless had to intervene, finding that the affected news organizations were likely to succeed in showing that their credentials had been revoked without adequate due process. In my view, intimidation and distraction from scrutiny of other issues were the real goals. Similarly, the FCC knows that established First Amendment law would make it extremely difficult to take action against Disney and ABC over the editorial content of their programming.
It therefore needs a pretext for initiating early license-renewal proceedings. That pretext must be exposed for what it is: another infringement of First Amendment rights by the Trump administration. The FCC’s stated justification is that Disney has engaged in discriminatory employment practices in violation of the FCC’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulations.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
