BREAKING: The FCC Is Coming for ABC's Licenses — And Everyone Knows Why
Kimmel-gate, here we go again.
The federal government is preparing to do something it hasn’t done in decades.
The FCC is moving to call in all eight Disney-owned ABC station licenses for early renewal — stations in major markets like New York and Chicago, licenses that aren’t due for renewal for years. The orders could come as early as today.
On paper, the FCC will claim the review stems from an ongoing probe into Disney’s DEI practices. Don’t believe it for a second. This is what retaliation looks like when it’s wearing a suit.
The timeline tells the story. First Lady Melania Trump blasted Kimmel for a joke he told during a monologue. Then President Trump publicly demanded — again — that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel. Now the FCC — run by Trump loyalist Brendan Carr — is reaching for a legal mechanism that hasn’t been used in decades.
But let’s back up, because the setup here matters.
Kimmel made his so-called “assassination joke” — the one the White House is now calling “disgusting” — days before last Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Nobody said anything. No outrage. No demands. No calls for his firing. The joke landed, the news cycle moved on, and that was that.
The joke itself? Kimmel, during a mock White House Correspondent’s Dinner roast, riffed on the age gap between Trump, who is nearly 80, and Melania, who is younger than Kimmel himself. He called her an “expectant widow.” It was a late-night joke about mortality and a May-December marriage — the kind of thing Johnny Carson might have delivered with a raised eyebrow and a rimshot.
Then came Saturday night. A gunman moved toward the Hilton ballroom. And suddenly, retroactively, Kimmel’s joke was reframed as incitement.
In fact, any criticism or even questioning of Trump is now being reframed as incitement. Never mind that Trump regularly blasts people, calls Democrats traitors, and says if they’re not stopped, they’ll destroy the country, and insults reporters for asking questions he doesn’t like. And MAGA loves it. MAGA spokespeople are all over news shows and social media defending his comments.
Here’s where the hypocrisy becomes almost comedic in its brazenness.
Just before the Correspondents’ Dinner, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — the official spokesperson for the President of the United States — said that “shots would be fired” at the event. Those were her words. Of course she was joking, referring to what was expected to be Trump again blasting the press. Leavitt’s comment drew no demands for her resignation. No outrage from Trump. No statement from Melania. No White House communications director calling her a “shit human being” on social media.
Kimmel made a joke about life insurance math. Leavitt used the word “shots” in the context of a gathering that was then actually targeted by a gunman. One of them still has her job, and the other is facing a federal license review.
Draw your own conclusions. The administration has certainly drawn theirs.
Carr is a smart enough operator to know exactly how this looks. He’s doing it anyway.
Here’s the thing about “early renewal”: it doesn’t yank licenses off the air. What it does is trigger a lengthy, expensive hearing process — one that forces Disney to spend money, time, and legal resources defending itself. As Malcolm Feeley wrote about the legal system back in 1979: the process is the punishment.
ABC’s licenses are probably not in any real danger. But that’s almost beside the point.
Meanwhile, the affiliate rebellion that rattled Disney last fall — led by Nexstar and Sinclair, the conservative-leaning station groups that threatened to preempt Kimmel back in September — hasn't materialized this time. Turns out Nexstar just got FCC approval for its Tegna acquisition last month. Pulling Kimmel now, with Democratic AGs already in court over that deal, would be a gift-wrapped exhibit for antitrust lawyers.
The politics have shifted. Trump’s approval numbers are sliding. Some institutions are finding their footing. Disney, under new CEO Josh D’Amaro, appears ready to fight.
The FCC’s lone Democrat, Anna Gomez, put it plainly: “We cannot allow this tragedy to become a pretext for silencing speech.”
“Political leader tries to silence a comedian” is the kind of sentence you usually read about somewhere else. Today, it’s the sentence that describes the United States of America. Aren’t we all old enough to remember conservatives complaining about “cancel culture”? Here it is on steroids.
Stay tuned. This one’s moving fast.
I'll be covering it here as it develops — with the context the algorithm won't give you. Sign up and become a paid subscriber to Archer's Line now so you don't miss out.