The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reportedly moving to review Disney’s broadcast licenses as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has raised questions that the company may have engaged in “race- and gender-based discrimination.”
Semafor reported that the FCC may not choose to trigger the process known as an early license view; however, Carr has threatened Disney, which owns ABC and its broadcast licenses, when he attacked the company’s diversity programs. The FCC licenses ABC’s broadcast television licenses, which operate on the publicly owned airwaves.
“If the evidence does in fact play out and shows that they were engaged in race- and gender-based discrimination, that’s a very serious issue at the FCC, that could fundamentally go to their character qualifications to even hold a license,” Carr told Fox this month.
Carr said in March 2025 that he has long had issues with ABC’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
President Donald and First Lady Melania Trump have demanded that controversial late night television host Jimmy Kimmel be fired. He most recently enflamed controversy when he said last week that the first lady looked like “an expectant widow.” Two days later, a gunman allegedly attempted to assassinate the president and top administration officials at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
A person with the FCC’s thinking told Semafor that the timing of the review was not linked to Kimmel’s recent controversial monologue.
On Monday, Trump wrote:
Wow, Jimmy Kimmel, who is in no way funny as attested to by his terrible Television Ratings, made a statement on his Show that is really shocking. He showed a fake video of the First Lady, Melania, and our son, Barron, like they were actually sitting in his studio, listening to him speak, which they weren’t, and never would be.
‘Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.’ A day later a lunatic tried entering the ballroom of the White House Correspondents Dinner, loaded up with a shotgun, handgun, and many knives. He was there for a very obvious and sinister reason.
“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale. Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he added.
The first lady wrote in her condemnation of Kimmel.
“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn’t comedy — his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America,” she wrote on X.
“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community.”