Full Breakdown
FCC Commissioner Accuses Agency of Targeted Censorship Campaign Against Disney and ABC
5/12/2026, 11:48:47 AM
Letter Claims Coordinated Censorship Campaign
On May 13, 2026, FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez sent a four-page letter to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, asserting that the FCC, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, is executing a “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” against Disney’s ABC network. Gomez linked the campaign to Disney’s $15 million settlement of a defamation suit filed by former President Donald Trump after the 2024 election and listed a series of FCC actions that followed.
Key Players and Scope of Investigations
The principal actors are Commissioner Gomez, Chairman Carr, Disney-ABC, and the FCC’s Media Bureau. Since 2023 the FCC has revived a DEI audit of Disney, opened an early review of broadcast licenses for eight ABC-owned stations—including KABC-TV in Los Angeles—requiring documentation of public-interest service, and launched a probe of “The View” after Texas Senate candidate James Talarico appeared on the program. A separate “news distortion” complaint concerning the 2024 Trump-Harris debate has also been reinstated.
Official Responses, Criticism, and Disputed Motives
Gomez’s letter frames the FCC actions as punitive, while the agency’s public statement defends the “The View” inquiry as a routine enforcement of the equal-time rule, which “generally prohibits broadcast programs from favoring one political candidate over another.” Disney filed a “blistering petition” contending that the probes violate the First Amendment and create a chilling effect. First-amendment groups and legal scholars have called the pattern of selective investigations a threat to press freedom, contrasting with the FCC’s claim of legitimate regulatory concerns.
Verbatim Quotes
- “What Disney and ABC are facing is not a series of coincidental regulatory actions but a sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control, 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,” — Anna M. Gomez, FCC Commissioner
- “She continued, "You are not the first target of this campaign, and you will not be the last.” — Anna M. Gomez, FCC Commissioner
- “Whatever the legal calculations behind that decision, its effect was immediate and unmistakable,” — Anna M. Gomez, FCC Commissioner
- “Most [FCC investigations] are destined never to be brought to any enforcement conclusion that could face judicial review,” — Anna M. Gomez, FCC Commissioner
- “Using the licenses of individual local stations as leverage against a parent company is an extraordinary and dangerous misapplication of this agency’s authority,” — Anna M. Gomez, FCC Commissioner
What’s Next
Disney’s petition is moving to federal court, where judges will evaluate the legality of the early license reviews and the equal-time probe. The FCC has signaled that its investigations will continue pending the litigation’s outcome.
