FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Thursday that the agency’s decision to order an early license review for Disney’s ABC television stations stems from an ongoing investigation into the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, not from President Trump’s public feud with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
“This was based on DEI conduct and not speech,” Carr said at a press conference following the FCC’s monthly meeting.
The review focuses on whether Disney’s DEI initiatives violate the FCC’s equal employment opportunity rules that prohibit discrimination based on race and gender. Carr said information received from Disney has raised suspicions of noncompliance, and he accused the company of being slow and evasive in its responses. “It felt like they were playing rope-a-dope,” Carr said of Disney’s handling of document requests.
Carr’s announcement came one day after Trump demanded Kimmel’s firing on Truth Social over a joke about first lady Melania Trump on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The timing prompted accusations that the FCC action was politically motivated.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the agency’s lone Democrat, called Carr’s order “the most egregious action this FCC has taken in violation of the First Amendment to date.”
The company previously stated it is confident its record shows it meets all qualifications as a licensee and is prepared to defend that position through legal channels.
On his April 23 show, Kimmel delivered a mock White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in which he joked that the first lady had “a glow like an expectant widow.” The remark came days before a man opened fire outside the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. The suspected gunman, Cole Allen, was later charged with attempting to assassinate Trump and two firearm offenses.