The Wall Street Journal cheered on the new legal action filed against President Donald Trump's Federal Communications Commission as his chair, Brendan Carr, threatens broadcast licenses of politically disfavored companies.
Carr, wrote the board, "has threatened to yank the licenses of ABC’s broadcast stations, sought to impose political control over guests on its daytime program 'The View,' and launched an investigation into its employment practices. Warning to broadcasters: Don’t criticize the President. Mr. Trump’s beef with ABC goes back to his first term, when he complained that its news coverage was unfair" — and regardless of the political lean of TV networks, "Mr. Trump thinks any criticism is unfair."
And Carr left a pretty clear evidence trail of what he was doing, the board continued, saying at the time, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead ... They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.”
The administration's attack on ABC is really an extension of their revenge tour against Disney, the board continued.
They may claim this is solely about investigating whether Disney's diversity, equity, and inclusion policies are discriminatory, the board said, but Carr seems "to be using the DEI probe as a pretext. He cited the DEI investigation in April to justify an early review of the broadcast licenses for the eight local broadcast stations that ABC directly owns and operates. None of its licenses expire before 2028. The FCC has never simultaneously demanded an early review of a group of station licenses owned by a single broadcast network."
With ABC fighting back in a new lawsuit, the board wrote, finally there might be a check on this overreach.
Ironically, concluded the board, just six years ago, Carr "lambasted a progressive media group for petitioning the FCC to censor broadcasts of Mr. Trump’s Covid press conferences, calling it a 'dangerous and sweeping attempt by the left to weaponize the FCC.' It’s a shame Mr. Carr won’t defend ABC’s free-speech rights today."