Conservative fight against license renewals for ABC stations heats up

[Lonestarblue]

Another salvo in the Republican effort to kill what's left of our nonpartisan media. Friends of Trump have already turned CBS into a Trump fan, and CNN will now not be far behind. Bezos turned the Post into Fox lite. Like Hitler and the Nazis, Trump and Republicans know that their lies and propaganda will not sway all people until they have full control over the media. Conservatives are afraid of the truth.

"A group of prominent conservative organizations has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests from the eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC, accusing the network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting the Chinese communist party.

The petitions come after the commission, led by Trump appointee Brendan Carr, took the nearly unprecedented step of requiring the network, a frequent recipient of attacks from Donald Trump, to apply several years early to maintain its ability to broadcast in markets around the country.

While Carr has said the early license renewal process stems from an FCC investigation into ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, petitioners are free to include a variety of grievances against the network and concerns about whether ABC is operating in the public interest."

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jul/06/abc-license-renewals-fcc

[MLWR]

1. It looks to me like the so-called "conservatives" don't believe in FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.

[Karasu]

6. They never have, only just pretended to. The death of the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan made that beyond obvious.

It's in the nature of conservatism. It's all about control.

[KS Toronado]

2. Is there any way a Judge could step in and tell the FCC they can't do that?

[onenote]

3. No. The FCC has authority to review licenses.

The court's authority to review FCC decisions kicks in when there is a "final" decision. Until the FCC actually makes a decision, there isn't anything for a court to review.

ABC has some of the best lawyers in the world. If there was a way to curtail this action by the FCC, you can rest assured they would be pursuing it.

[FakeNoose]

4. This is beyond absurd, and it all boils down to Chump's fee-fees being hurt by Kimmel jokes

[Martin Eden]

5. RIGHT-WING AUTHORITARIAN fight against Free Press that does not fall in line

"Conservative" in the USA is now synonymous with right-wing authoritarian, but far too many voters haven't grasped that yet. Calling the Party Of Trump "conservative" can be misleading, conferring upon them an adherence to Constitutional norms and rule of law which they are now dismantling in support of an utterly corrupt dictatorship.