FCC chair puts ABC’s Trump speech snub in station license review
Brendan Carr said ABC’s choice not to carry Trump’s July 16 election-security speech live will surface in an FCC review of eight ABC station licenses.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
ABC’s decision to skip live coverage of President Donald Trump’s July 16 White House speech is now headed into a federal review of eight ABC-owned TV station licenses, according to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
Carr, who was appointed chair by Trump, said at a Wednesday press conference that the Federal Communications Commission has an open proceeding examining whether those stations have been serving the public interest. He said he expected ABC’s handling of the president’s remarks to be raised in that case.
“I think that when you have the president of the United States standing inside the White House delivering an important speech, I think that’s something that broadcasters should be carrying,” Carr said, according to Variety. He added that the FCC would hold broadcasters to the same public-interest standard.
The comments put fresh pressure on Disney-owned ABC in a broader fight over broadcast licenses, political coverage and the federal government’s power over local TV stations.
Trump wanted licenses pulled
Trump used the July 16 speech to make claims about U.S. election security. According to Politico, he alleged that U.S. elections had been “rigged and stolen” and claimed China had illegally accessed millions of voter files as part of an effort to influence the 2018 and 2020 elections.
During the speech, Trump singled out ABC and NBC for not carrying his comments live, Politico reported. He said the networks should lose their broadcast licenses over the decision, calling the lack of live coverage “fraud,” according to the report.
Trump has threatened broadcast licenses in other settings before, Variety reported. Network broadcast licenses are held by local stations, not by national networks as a single blanket license.
Variety reported that it contacted ABC for comment. The outlet did not report a response from the network.
ABC is already fighting the FCC order
The license fight predates the July 16 speech. In April, the FCC’s Media Bureau ordered ABC to reapply early for spectrum licenses covering eight owned-and-operated stations, according to Variety.
That order came days after Trump called for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump, Variety reported.
The FCC said the early review was tied to an investigation into whether Disney and ABC may have violated discrimination rules through the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, according to Variety.
Disney filed the renewal applications, but did so “under protest,” calling the FCC order “unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional,” Variety reported.
Last month, Disney also began urging viewers across its stations to submit comments about the FCC proceeding, according to Variety.
Carr also addressed a separate broadcast policy issue on Wednesday: the FCC’s planned vote on ending the 39% national ownership cap for TV stations. He said removing that limit would help local stations compete with national programmers and would bring “some of the balance” back to broadcast airwaves, according to Variety.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.