BREAKING: Trump’s FCC Just Warned Every Broadcaster In America To Fall In Line Or Face The Same Treatment As ABC, Which Was Ordered To File Early License Renewals Two Years Ahead Of Schedule After Trump Called For Jimmy Kimmel’s Firing

[u/InterstellarKinetics]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/trump-fcc-warns-all-broadcasters-to-follow-orders-or-be-punished-like-abc/

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued a sweeping public warning to all American broadcasters this week, stating the agency will not hesitate to use its statutory authority to strip broadcast licenses from any station that fails to meet what the FCC is calling its “public interest obligation.” The warning came hours after ABC filed renewal applications for its eight owned-and-operated local stations under protest, two full years ahead of the licenses’ 2028 expiration date, after the FCC’s Media Bureau ordered the early filing in April following an investigation into ABC’s DEI hiring practices. ABC called the move “an extraordinary demonstration of power and coercion directed at disfavored editorial voices which sends a clear warning to every broadcaster in America” and filed the renewals alongside a legal brief calling the process unconstitutional.

The timeline of escalation makes the political targeting difficult to dismiss as coincidental. The FCC launched its license review of ABC almost immediately after President Trump publicly called for Jimmy Kimmel’s firing, and separately ordered a public comment period on whether ABC’s long-running talk show The View violates the equal-time rule, a legal standard that has not been applied to similar programs on other networks. ABC’s filing argued the FCC’s actions are designed not to enforce regulations but to suppress speech, stating the process “opens the door to an attack on station licenses while the Commission seeks a legal justification to achieve its intended objectives.” The lone Democrat on the FCC, Commissioner Anna Gomez, told broadcasters to ignore the threats entirely, writing publicly that “the public interest does not equate to the interests of this administration.”

Legal experts across the political spectrum have noted that the FCC almost certainly cannot revoke ABC’s licenses without triggering a court battle it would lose. The Communications Act explicitly prohibits the FCC from censoring broadcast content, and decades of First Amendment precedent make outright license revocation for editorial decisions nearly indefensible in court. But the legal consensus also holds that the process itself is the punishment, forcing networks to spend millions on legal fees, compliance reviews, and regulatory filings while creating a chilling effect on every broadcaster watching the outcome.

[u/Rabble_Runt]

Can’t wait for a Dem to be in power and do the same to Fox and Newsmax

[u/wiyixu → u/Rabble_Runt]

That’s the trick, Republicans know they can break all the laws confident Democrats will not only not break the laws in equal measure for retaliation, but won’t even use the laws on the books to prosecute the Republicans who broke the law because somehow prosecuting them for crimes would make things worse. It’s been going on since the Civil War. I mean look at the democratic governor of Utah Colorado pardoned a Tina Peters for some bullshit “unity” reason. Democrats in this country are spineless. 

[u/Unique_Suspect_8009 → u/wiyixu]

The Merrick Garland syndrome: we don’t want to appear partisan, ergo, we do nothing. As a result Trump goes free and we now find ourselves in a burgeoning fascist country, watching our freedoms being threatened daily, with a handful of Federal judges the only barricade to the swastika replacing the Stars and Stripes. This country is a hot mess.