A conservative media watchdog on Wednesday doubled down on its push for FCC Chair Brendan Carr to end ABC’s TV licenses, comparing the network to a “squatter” for feeling an “entitlement” to the public airwaves, The Post has learned.
In a new regulatory filing Wednesday, the Media Research Center, or MRC, said ABC’s opposition to the end of its broadcast licenses “effectively boils down to a ‘squatters rights’ argument.”
“Someone else may own the property, have the statutory right to license the property, and bear the responsibility to ensure the property is well maintained, but ABC seems to believe it has an entitlement to control the property in perpetuity,” the group wrote in the filing.
A conservative media watchdog on Wednesday doubled down on its push for FCC Chair Brendan Carr (above) to end ABC’s TV licenses. REUTERS
“But broadcast spectrum is publicly owned, and a license to use it is a limited-term privilege conditioned on compliance with statutory and contractual obligations.”
The MRC and the Center for American Rights, another conservative watchdog, initially filed in June urging the FCC not to renew ABC’s licenses.
The FCC has been reviewing eight of Disney’s broadcast licenses – including ABC channels in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – after Chairman Brendan Carr initiated a renewal process a year early, accusing the network of failing to cooperate with a probe into its DEI policies.
ABC clapped back last week in its own regulatory filing, accusing Carr of “attempted censorship” and tearing into the filings from the MRC and CAR, which accused the network of electioneering, disinformation and excusing political violence.
In a scorching 119-page filing, the Disney-owned network warned that Carr’s review of its TV licenses is part of a larger partisan attack on media.
“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,” ABC wrote in the filing.
The network added that conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz have recently warned about the dangers of a politicized FCC, and that ABC received more than 153,000 comments in support amid the review.
ABC clapped back last week in its own regulatory filing, accusing Carr of “attempted censorship.” REUTERS
“The Commission’s attempted censorship of ABC has attracted condemnation across the political aisle,” the network wrote.
The MRC on Wednesday argued that ABC has mischaracterized its opposition as “mere ‘bias’” and that support from political allies after “an extensive lobby campaign” is not enough to quash its arguments.
ABC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Carr has a history of picking up petitions from conservative media watchdogs, who have filed numerous complaints against traditional media giants.
In 2024, the CAR filed an FCC complaint accusing CBS News of news distortion after it claimed a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris was deceptively edited to make her answers seem more coherent ahead of the presidential election.
The Biden administration dismissed the complaint – but it was reopened by Carr when he became chairman in January 2025.
Carr demanded a full interview transcript and video feeds from CBS, which he released to the public.
Paramount, which owns CBS, ultimately agreed to a $16 million settlement with President Trump over his lawsuit alleging the “60 Minutes” interview was deceptively edited.
The FCC’s current review of ABC’s licenses was launched in the midst of a heated feud between the network’s late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel, and Trump, after Kimmel joked that First Lady Melania Trump had a “glow like an expectant widow” following two assassination attempts on the president. Trump has repeatedly called for Kimmel to be fired.
