A coalition of prominent conservative groups has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny license renewal requests for eight local television stations owned and operated by ABC.
The legal challenges accuse the network of political, racial, and sexual bias, as well as supporting the Chinese Communist Party.
The Center for American Rights filed a petition last Monday, asserting that the stations were not operating in the public interest due to consistent partisan bias.
“ABC ignores long-standing Commission precedents and principles protecting the integrity of the news,” the group wrote.
The organization further argued that the network engages in discrimination and fails to respect agency regulations.
“ABC engages in explicit racial and gender discrimination. ABC cozies up to the Communist Chinese Party and airbrushes over religious and ethnic cleansing.
ABC fails to respect this Commission’s rules,” the petition stated.
The complaint requested that the FCC deny the requests and schedule a formal hearing to review the network’s public interest qualifications.
The Media Research Center also submitted a filing targeting stations in major markets, including New York City and Los Angeles, over alleged efforts to influence national elections.
The watchdog group claimed that ABC used public spectrum to suppress crucial news stories and minimize political violence.
“ABC has used public spectrum to suppress news coverage of the most critical stories of our day; to engage in electioneering and relentless political bias; to excuse, minimize, and even justify the epidemic of political violence; and to peddle misinformation and defamation,” the filing said.
The Article III Project focused its submission on the employment and diversity practices of ABC’s parent company, Disney.
“The Commission should deny renewal of ABC’s television licenses,” wrote William Chamberlain, senior counsel for the organization.
The legal group demanded that any potential renewal must include strict conditions to address federal Equal Employment Opportunity law compliance.
Another petition from America First Legal challenged the character qualifications of the stations, following a timeline acceleration by the FCC after a White House controversy regarding Jimmy Kimmel.
The FCC is also reviewing potential equal time violations on the talk show “The View,” with a July 29 deadline set for opposition to the petitions.
During a June 25 FCC meeting, Chairman Brendan Carr stated that there is no fixed timeline for the review and subsequent appeal process.
“If it’s short, great. If it’s long, great,” he said.
The agency will decide whether to hand the matter to an administrative law judge or hold internal hearings after the final reply deadline on August 5.
“But we got to apply the Communications Act and the provisions,” Carr added.
