[Original story]: In a move that definitely isn’t for political reasons, the FCC is thinking about reviewing Disney and ABC’s broadcast licenses two years ahead of schedule. Semafor reports this morning that the FCC is “moving toward” an early review of the licenses less than 24 hours after President Trump called for late night host Jimmy Kimmel to lose his job over a joke about the age gap between the president and Melania Trump, though a source for the outlet claims the review is not “directly linked” to Kimmel’s joke.
Though the timing is certainly hard to ignore, the FCC has been poking at ABC for months now. There was the entire other situation with Kimmel last fall where he was briefly pulled off the air, and then the FCC began poking around at The View over its political content. But FCC chair Brendar Carr directly threatened Disney’s licenses within the past month over diversity and inclusion practices in their hiring. On Fox News a few weeks ago, Carr made the argument that it was DEI practices that were actually discriminatory, saying (per The Hill), “If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license.” Per The Hollywood Reporter, the TV licenses are due for renewal until 2028, and opting to review them early would be practically unprecedented.
Keep scrolling for more great stories.