For more than a year, the Federal Communications Commission and its chairman Brendan Carr have repeatedly hassled, threatened and tried to intimidate ABC.

Led by Carr, the FCC made threats against Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show. It put “The View” in its sights over perceived political bias. And now it is launching an extremely rare early review of licenses for eight ABC-owned TV stations.

But now, ABC says it has had enough.

In a fervent filing with the FCC, ABC is accusing the commission of “attempted censorship.” The FCC is targeting the network, ABC claims, simply because the FCC doesn’t like what the network sometimes says. ABC is clear: It is accusing the FCC of trying to stifle the free speech of a media company.

ABC said in the filing, which was made public Thursday, “The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: accommodate the Administration’s view of what news coverage should look like or pay the price. Across the government, regulatory and contracting carrots and sticks have been trained on disfavored speakers. The tools vary; the objective does not: a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely.”

It added, “There is no question why the Commission is singling out these eight stations: Each is owned by ABC, and the Administration has openly and repeatedly called for the revocation of ABC’s licenses, because it dislikes the content and viewpoints expressed on ABC network programs.”

The filing called out President Donald Trump and Carr by name, writing, “For years, President Trump has expressly demanded that the Commission revoke ABC’s broadcast licenses for speech he dislikes. Since his appointment, Chairman Carr has subsequently opened all manner of investigations and issued a slew of burdensome investigatory requests.

Deadline’s Ted Johnson noted, “ABC’s filing cited instances of threats that Trump has made against the network over its news coverage and its handling of the 2024 presidential debate, and referred to other instances in which the administration has gone after other outlets and political opponents.”

Back in April, Carr, who was appointed by Trump, called for ABC to apply for early renewal of the station licenses for the eight ABC-owned stations, saying the commission was looking into diversity, equity and inclusion practices. What made the request so unusual is that the licenses do not expire until 2028.

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ABC’s latest filing said, “The FCC has spent the last 18 months searching for some pretext for revoking the Stations’ licenses. The Commission has found none, because the Stations easily meet the standard for license renewal — which under the law means that the Commission cannot revoke their licenses or order a hearing on their renewal applications.”

The public could respond to the FCC’s review on its website. More than 150,000 have submitted comments, with an overwhelming majority supporting ABC.

The Los Angeles Times’ Meg James laid out what’s next: “The FCC is expected to make a determination next month. It could require ABC to defend the stations in a hearing or before the commission.”

Disney and ABC appear to be gearing up for a fight.

The New York Times’ John Koblin wrote, “The filing also revealed that the legal team at Disney, which owns ABC, just got bigger. Disney has hired Beth Wilkinson, a trial lawyer who successfully defended Microsoft’s 2023 acquisition of Activision. She was also recently hired by Paramount as it contends with several state attorneys general who are suing to block its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Ms. Wilkinson will join a legal team that includes Paul D. Clement, one of the most experienced Supreme Court litigators in the country. If the F.C.C. ultimately decides to block the renewal of ABC’s station licenses, the network will have opportunities to fight back in court.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the FCC said, “For decades, Americans of all stripes have been subsidizing broadcast media to the tune of many billions of dollars by giving TV stations free use of a valuable, public resource — the airwaves. In exchange, broadcasters are required by law to operate in the public interest — not in the narrow or partisan interests of a political party.”

The spokesperson added, “Broadcasters know that they are prohibited from engaging in invidious forms of DEI discrimination, that they must comply with political equal opportunity regulations, and that they are barred from running broadcast hoaxes or distorting the news. The FCC is going to hold broadcasters accountable to the full extent of the law, regardless of any disinformation campaign that some of them may choose to run.”

Anna M. Gomez, the commission’s lone Democrat, wrote that “the American public showed up in a big way” to speak out against what she called a “campaign of censorship and control.”

Gomez added, “The FCC has no authority to police the ideological balance of the airwaves, and no matter what this Commission does next, the record now makes clear that this was never a genuine search for the public interest.”

Media news, tidbits and interesting links for your weekend review

• Speaking of the FCC, here’s Washingtonian contributing writer Nancy Scola with “How Brendan Carr Became MAGA’s Media Watchdog.”
• This is one wild story. The New York Times’ David Streitfeld with “Couple Stalked by eBay Settle for $56 Million.”
• The Associated Press’ Ali Swenson with “A new media ecosystem is taking root on the left, reshaping Democratic politics.”
• For the Columbia Journalism Review, Miranda Green with “How a Network of Pink-Slime News Sites and Conservative Activists Went After Campus DEI.”
• The Wall Street Journal’s Joshua Robinson and Gina Heeb with “The $20 Billion FIFA Plan That Is Tearing Apart Global Soccer.”
• The New York Times’ Theodore Schleifer with “Elon Musk Plans to Spend at Least $100 Million to Help Republicans in the Midterms.”
• LeBron James and ESPN are nearing a deal for a behind-the-scenes documentary similar to the “The Last Dance” multipart series about Michael Jordan. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand has all the details. Marchand reports a documentary team will follow James with his new team, the Philadelphia 76ers, and that footage will be combined with film, including some never-before-seen footage, from earlier in his career. There is no timetable as of yet.
• Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina with “Mike Golic Sr. Sets the Record Straight on His Relationship With Mike Greenberg.” Talking about his old “Mike and Mike” ESPN radio partner, Golic told Traina that their radio breakup in 2017 after nearly 18 years “didn’t end well.” But he said, “As far as the relationship with Greeny, we don’t keep in touch much in all honesty, but occasionally we’ll check in. Quite honestly, mostly it’s about how the kids are doing, how his kids are doing, how my kids are doing, because I was growing my family during ‘Mike & Mike’ and Greeny had his kids during ‘Mike & Mike’ and we were always a very family-oriented show, so kids were always involved.” Golic added, “So, it’s not very frequent we keep in touch, but when we do, it’s cordial.”

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