Carr Says ABC's Decision to Skip Trump's Speech Will Count Against Its License Renewal

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Wednesday that ABC's decision not to carry President Trump's July 16 address to the nation live will factor into the agency's review of eight ABC-owned station licenses, according to Variety and The Desk.

The stations in question serve New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Fresno, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, Houston and Philadelphia. Carr told reporters at a hastily arranged press conference that the review looks at whether those stations have operated in the public interest, and "I'm sure that there are going to be points raised in that proceeding" about ABC's decision not to air the speech.

"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, adding the FCC would hold all broadcasters to the same standard.

How We Got Here

The license review isn't new. In April, the FCC's Media Bureau ordered Disney to renew ABC's station licenses on an accelerated timeline, following a year-long probe into the company's diversity and equity hiring and promotion practices, The Desk reported. Some of those licenses still had years left on their terms. Disney submitted its renewal applications under protest, calling the order "unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional," and used its own stations to urge viewers to file comments with the FCC.

Trump's speech itself, delivered July 16, repeated claims disputing the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost. During the address, Trump accused ABC and NBC of election-related misinformation for not airing it live on their broadcast networks.

Both ABC and NBC streamed the speech on their free online platforms instead of preempting prime-time programming. CBS, Fox and the CW carried it live on air. CNN did not air it at all. Local affiliates owned by Sinclair, which operates a number of ABC and NBC stations, chose to preempt programming and air the speech through Sinclair's own National Desk broadcast.

Affiliate-owning companies like Sinclair are not part of the FCC's license review, and Carr did not say whether the commission is looking at Comcast, NBC's parent, which is currently in the process of spinning off its broadcast network and related assets.

The Pushback

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency's only Democrat, rejected Carr's framing directly. "It is not for the FCC to tell broadcasters how to make their editorial decisions or what content to place on their networks or their local broadcast stations," Gomez said in a statement reported by The Desk. She called the move "censorship one way or another" and said the public-interest standard is being used to punish speech the administration doesn't like.

Gomez's argument reflects a real and long-standing legal principle. Broadcasters have historically held editorial discretion over news coverage, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly protected editorial judgment as a form of speech. If the FCC begins treating a network's decision not to air a presidential address as evidence against its license, that raises questions about where public-interest review ends and content-based pressure begins.

Carr's side of the argument is that license renewal reviews routinely weigh whether stations serve their communities, and refusing to air a president's address on a matter the administration deems urgent is a legitimate data point among many the agency considers. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) made a similar case in a letter to Carr this week, writing that "the public airwaves should inform the American people, not be used by corporate executives to decide which matters of national importance they are permitted to hear," according to Fox News.

Whether the FCC can lawfully make a network's editorial judgment about live coverage a formal factor in a license decision without running into First Amendment problems remains unresolved. No formal enforcement action, fine, or license denial has been announced. The review remains open, and Carr gave no timeline for when it might conclude or what weight the speech decision will ultimately carry against the eight stations up for renewal.

Disney has not issued a new public statement responding specifically to Carr's Wednesday remarks. Its April filing calling the underlying license review "unlawful, arbitrary and unconstitutional" remains its most recent formal position on the record.