On Monday, 6abc issued a warning for viewers to take action to prevent Action News from disappearing from TV screens across the Delaware Valley.
“The FCC is questioning our commitment to viewers by threatening to take us off the air,” a message from the station read.
So what’s going on?
Most local news stations are owned by separate companies, but 6abc is one of eight owned and operated by ABC, whose parent company is Disney.
In April, the Federal Communications Commission launched an early review of the broadcast licenses for those eight stations. The review came shortly after President Donald Trump called for ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke he made involving first lady Melania Trump.
FCC commissioner Anna M. Gomez, the only remaining Democrat on the three-member panel, wrote in a May letter to Disney that the company had “been made a target” by Trump’s FCC, and that targeting local stations “is an extraordinary and dangerous misapplication” of the agency’s authority.
“What Disney and ABC are facing is not a series of coincidental regulatory actions but a sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control,” Gomez wrote, “carried out through the weaponization of the FCC’s authority as a federal regulator and aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission.”
Despite that, the FCC said the review stemmed from an earlier investigation into diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at Disney, citing “the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.” The agency is conducting a similar investigation of Comcast, which owns NBC.
“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,” FCC chairman Brendan Carr said on Fox News in March.
6abc viewers being asked to comment
In an attempt to fight back, 6abc, which did not immediately respond to request for comment, is asking viewers to weigh in on the early review of its broadcast license and support the station.
The FCC doesn’t make it easy. Viewers need to visit the agency’s website and submit a “express comment” using the FCC’s docket number: 26-131
The public comment period is open until June 29.
6abc renewed its broadcast license in 2023 for eight years, but the FCC could move to revoke it if it determines the station hasn’t “served the public interest” or has violated federal broadcast rules and regulations.
A Disney spokesperson said in a statement the company has “a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules” and was “prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”
It’s been more than 40 years since the FCC has revoked a broadcast license from a TV station. The last time it happened was 1987, when the FCC stripped RKO General Inc. of its licenses in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles because of business misconduct.
Even if the FCC revokes ABC’s local broadcast licenses, the case would ultimately be decided by an administrative law judge, according to the FCC’s website.
The process could take years, and no changes are expected for 6abc during that time.
‘The View’ is also fighting back
It’s not just ABC’s local stations the Trump administration is targeting. The FCC is also targeting the daytime interview show The View and its ability to interview politicians.
The investigation of The View stems from an February interview featuring U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, a Texas Democrat who at the time was facing off in a primary against U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
The FCC claimed the interview was a violation of the equal time rule, a federal requirement put into law in 1934 requiring broadcast stations to provide comparable airtime to political opponents during an election.
Disney has asked the FCC to declare The View qualifies as a “bona fide news” interview program and is exempt from the federal rules, like news programs on broadcast TV like Meet the Press and Face the Nation.
In a May filing, ABC said The View received a news exemption from the FCC in 2002, and in 24 years it hadn’t been challenged. It called the FCC’s move to go after The View “unprecedented” and an attempt to “chill critical protected speech.”
It’s a blurry line for late-night shows, which feature politicians as guests. While not technically news programs, the FCC hasn’t enforced the equal time rule on late-night shows since 2006, when it ruled then-California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno qualified as a “bona fide news interview.”
But that’s changing under the Trump administration. The FCC issued a notice to broadcasters in January stating late-night and daytime TV talk shows may no longer be exempt, claiming some were “motivated by partisan purposes.”
Carr also pressured ABC affiliates to take Kimmel off the air in September. ABC ultimately suspended his show after two companies — Nexstar and Sinclair — said they would preempt it on their ABC-affiliated stations. Ultimately, ABC backed Kimmel and his show was back on TV a week later.
