Lawyers for Disney accused the Trump administration of "blatant violations of the US constitution" and censorship during a court hearing on Tuesday regarding the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) early review of the media giant's eight local television station licenses.
Court Hearing Details
District judge Loren AliKhan appeared unconvinced by government arguments that the order requiring Disney's ABC to apply years early for license renewals was linked to an investigation into the parent company's hiring practices. In August, ABC, Disney, and its station group filed a lawsuit against the FCC to prevent the media regulator from further actions that could punish or pressure the network.
Allegations of Censorship
In its lawsuit, ABC contended that the FCC's actions, initiated by Brendan Carr, the chair appointed by Donald Trump, were designed to suppress the network's speech, which has been claimed to be biased against the administration. During the hearing, ABC highlighted previous threats from the president and the FCC chairman that jeopardized television networks' licenses for editorial reasons.
“"These are blatant violations of the US constitution," stated prominent trial lawyer Beth Wilkinson, representing ABC, during the two-hour hearing. She emphasized that ABC is experiencing a "chilling effect" on its editorial decisions, leading the network to avoid political bookings and programming that might provoke further backlash from the Trump administration.
