ABC filed an opposition to the Federal Communications Commission’s motion to dismiss the First Amendment lawsuit against them Thursday, calling the commission’s early license renewal a “broadcaster death penalty.”
The FCC asked a federal judge to dismiss ABC’s First Amendment lawsuit challenging the agency’s early review of licenses for eight Disney-owned television stations Sept. 4.
“Those public statements underscore that the purpose of the Commission’s call for early license renewal is not to investigate discrimination; it is to license viewpoints,” the filing stated in response to the motion to dismiss.
The network said that the FCC’s motions “improperly conflate the nature of Plaintiffs’ retaliation claims,” while ABC and its affiliates suffer. This opposition comes on the Sept. 17 reply deadline, which is part of the briefing schedule laid out by the judge last month, ahead of a hearing ordered for the week of Oct. 5, according to the network.
ABC also claimed that the FCC’s “plain purpose” of initiating the early license renewal process was to have leverage over them “by hanging the threat of the broadcaster death penalty of license non-renewal or revocation over Plaintiffs’ every editorial decision.”
“Although the Chairman is free to express publicly that he dislikes Jimmy Kimmel or thinks that no one should watch ‘The View,’ he cannot threaten retaliatory enforcement against speech he dislikes. Such threats indisputably qualify as adverse action,” the filing read.
More to come…
