President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission just forced one of the most powerful broadcasters in the country into a fight it had been trying to frame as a First Amendment emergency.
ABC still had to file the paperwork.
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The Associated Press reported that ABC-owned television stations turned in early license-renewal filings on May 28, 2026, while blasting the FCC’s review as unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional.
WABC in New York filed an objection alongside its renewal paperwork, and seven other ABC-owned stations filed similar objections. The stations affected by the review include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Fresno, and Durham.
Those renewal windows had been years away under the ordinary schedule. The FCC moved the deadline forward after a broader dispute with Disney’s ABC, including agency scrutiny of Disney’s diversity practices and other broadcaster obligations.
ABC’s position is that the early review is unconstitutional pressure on disfavored editorial voices. Carr’s response points in the opposite direction:
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