Judge skeptical of FCC’s move to scrutinize ABC station licenses

A federal judge in D.C. on Tuesday declined to immediately rule on whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should be stopped from conducting an early review of broadcast licenses belonging to a handful of local ABC stations across the country.  

But U.S. District Judge Loren Alikhan appeared skeptical from the bench of the administration’s justification for initiating the process. 

“What is it that made this so different that you needed to call for an early license renewal?”  Alikhan asked a Justice Department lawyer during Tuesday’s two-hour hearing, getting to the heart of the administration’s efforts to scrutinize the Disney-owned broadcaster.  

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The Trump administration contends that the FCC’s early renewal process, an unprecedented move for a media regulator to take against one of the nation’s largest broadcast networks, was necessary as part of the department’s probe into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices.  

“The commission has an obligation to pursue these types of investigations,” Dimitar Georgiev, an attorney for the DOJ, said, framing it as a “core function” of the Brendan Carr-led........

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