Three former FCC chairmen who served Republican and Democratic presidents have filed a formal document urging the agency to shut down its early review of spectrum licences for eight ABC-owned television stations, calling the proceeding "an assault on free speech disguised as regulatory process" (Variety; Reuters).

The signatories span four decades of FCC leadership: Mark Fowler, chairman under Ronald Reagan; Alfred Sikes, chairman under George H. W. Bush; and Tom Wheeler, chairman under Barack Obama. Their filing, submitted to the FCC docket numbered 26-131 and titled "Early License Renewal Applications of Disney's ABC Stations," describes the proceeding as "unprecedented in the history of the Federal Communications Commission and a grave violation of both the Communications Act and the Constitution" (Variety; FCC docket 26-131).

Spectrum licences are the government permissions that let a broadcaster transmit over public airwaves. Stations normally renew them on an eight-year cycle. In April 2026, the FCC's Media Bureau ordered ABC to reapply for all eight of its owned-and-operated stations on an accelerated schedule, short-circuiting that routine timeline (Variety).

That order landed one day after President Donald Trump publicly called for late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has denied that the White House pressured him to launch the review (Variety; Reuters via Facebook).

Carr and the FCC have said the early review stems from an investigation into Disney and ABC over potential discrimination-rule violations tied to their diversity, equity, and inclusion practices (Variety). The FCC had reinstated a complaint against ABC in January 2025, days after Carr became chairman (FCC document, May 2026).

Disney pushed back hard. In May 2026 the company filed the eight licence-renewal applications, saying it did so "under protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional order." Disney also launched a campaign across its stations urging viewers to submit comments directly to the FCC about the proceeding (Variety; FCC Media Bureau, May 2026). ABC had already removed Kimmel's programme from its schedule on 17 September 2025 (FCC document, September 2025).

The pressure on the FCC is not coming from one direction. Reporters Without Borders warned on 21 July 2026 that the agency's "politically motivated attack on ABC could set a dangerous precedent" (RSF). Four days later, conservative groups urged Carr to preserve routine broadcast-licence renewals, warning that the ABC precedent could have harmful downstream effects (Yahoo News).

What makes this unusual is the breadth of the coalition lining up against the FCC's own action. When former chairmen from Reagan's and Obama's administrations file the same document, and conservative organisations and international press-freedom groups arrive at the same warning from different roads, the question sitting under the scheduling decision becomes whether the licence a broadcaster holds is still a routine matter of regulation or something a licence-holder has to keep earning on political terms.