Critics of US President Donald Trump and free speech advocates have condemned his administration’s decision to review the broadcasting licenses of several ABC channels, calling the move “unconstitutional.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigation announced Tuesday comes after President Trump and first lady Melania Trump called for the firing of ABC host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made last week.
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“The FCC’s unconstitutional threat against ABC is the latest confirmation that Chairman Brendan Carr is weaponizing what should be an independent agency for President Donald Trump’s personal political agenda,” Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders North America, said in a statement.
“The FCC doesn’t have the power to revoke ABC’s license just because the president can’t tell a joke.”
The FCC announced that it has opened an investigation into eight local ABC stations over diversity measures that may constitute “unlawful discrimination,” forcing them to apply for early license renewals.
But critics have stressed the timing of the review amid the Kimmel controversy.
“It must be pure coincidence that the FCC launched this investigation right after Jimmy Kimmel made another joke that Trump didn’t like,” Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen wrote in X.
“The FCC can try to dress this up all they want, but this is just another flagrant attempt to silence Trump’s critics and stifle free speech.”
Amnesty International USA also accused the FCC of using authoritarian tactics. “Government institutions must take seriously their responsibility to respect press freedom and freedom of expression,” the rights group said in a statement.
Ted Cruz slams reviews
The FCC’s decision prompted a rare Republican criticism of the Trump administration by Sen. Ted Cruz.
“It’s not the government’s job to censor speech, and I don’t think the FCC should act as a speech police,” Cruz told Punchbowl News.
Days earlier, the White House had lashed out at Kimmel when the Trumps called for his firing following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C.
Before the celebration, Kimmel joked that Trump and his supporters were claiming a connection to the shootings, which prosecutors say were aimed at the US president.
At the “Alternative” White House Correspondents Dinner on his show Thursday, Kimmel said, “Our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, she’s so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have the glow of a pregnant widow.”
Kimmel on Monday dismissed the outrage over the joke, saying it was “obviously” not a call to violence.
“[It was]a joke about their age difference and the look of joy on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light joke,” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! show.
Kimmel later drew attention to comments Trump himself made about his age.
In a speech welcoming Britain’s King Charles on Tuesday, the US president told his wife that he would “never be able to match” his parents’ 63 years of marriage.
Kimmel aired Trump’s joke on his show Tuesday night, saying, “Wait a minute. Did he make a joke about his own death? Oh my god. He should be fired for that.”
Disney also responds
This is not the first time President Trump and his allies have targeted Kimmel.
Last year, ABC suspended Kimmel after the FCC threatened to take action against the network over comments by the comedian insinuating that a Republican may have been responsible for the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel later returned to the show after an outcry from free speech advocates.
ABC has not taken any action against Kimmel this time, despite President Trump’s request for his firing.
Disney, ABC’s parent company, said its stations “operate in full compliance with FCC rules and have a long track record of providing trusted news, emergency information and public interest programming to our communities.”
“We believe this record continues to demonstrate our status as a licensee under the Communications Act and the First Amendment, and we are prepared to demonstrate that through appropriate legal channels,” a Disney spokesperson told multiple U.S. news outlets on Tuesday.
“We remain focused, as always, on serving our audiences in the local communities in which our stations operate.”
Efforts to revoke the broadcast licenses of existing channels are likely to face legal and administrative challenges and could be a multi-year process.
The last time the FCC was successful in revoking a station’s broadcast license for content was in 1969, when a local television station in Mississippi was accused of discriminating against African Americans during the civil rights movement.
“Terrible assault”
Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez called the agency’s move against ABC “unprecedented,” “illegal,” and “doomed to fail.”
“This is the most egregious attack on the First Amendment that we have seen from this FCC,” Gomez told CNN.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from prohibiting or “abridging” free speech.
Tuesday’s investigation into ABC comes at the same time that federal prosecutors are filing criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey over social media posts.
Last May, Comey shared an image of a seashell spelling out “8647.” “86” is a slang term meaning to remove or throw away something, and Mr. Trump is the 47th president of the United States.
The Justice Department accused Comey, a vocal critic of President Trump, of “deliberately” making “threats to take the life and inflict bodily harm on the President of the United States.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told CBS News on Wednesday that the charges were not politically motivated.
As a candidate, Trump vowed to “restore free speech.” But since he returned to the White House for a second term starting in January 2025, critics have accused his administration of trying to silence opposition, particularly Palestinian rights advocacy.
Last year, the Trump administration launched a campaign to deport noncitizens, including international students and lawful permanent residents, for criticizing Israel.
