FCC Commissioner Straight Up Admits She’s ‘Glad’ ABC Sued Her Agency

(Rod Lamkey/AP photo)

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez has revealed that she’s “glad” that ABC “stepped up” to slap her agency and its chairman, Brendan Carr, with a lawsuit.

Gomez, who has been commissioner at the agency since 2023, spoke out on Tuesday after ABC accused the FCC of waging a “retaliatory campaign” because it “disapproves” of what the network broadcasts.

“I have long called on companies to push back against this kind of government intimidation, and I’m glad Disney has shown courage and stepped up,” Gomez told MeidasTouch’s Scott MacFarlane.

The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, accused the Trump administration of using the FCC in a crusade of vengeance against ABC and violating its First Amendment rights.

“The consequences of the Administration’s campaign against free speech reach well beyond ABC,” the lawsuit reads (via The Hollywood Reporter). “If the Administration gets its way, the message to every media company in the country will be unmistakable: tell only the stories the Administration deems favorable, or face the coercive machinery of the federal government. In such a world, the press could in no way be described as free.”

It came six months after Carr, the FCC chairman, announced in February that he began “enforcement proceedings” against The View for potential violations of the “equal time” guideline.

In April, the agency announced a probe into Disney, ABC’s parent company, and subsidiaries “for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.” That announcement came right after ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about Melania Trump being an “expectant widow.”

In July, ABC accused the agency of “attempted censorship.”

At the time, Gomez released a statement attacking President Donald Trump as a “bully” for his call to revoke network’s broadcast licenses for not carrying a speech by the president.

“It is ridiculous to call for broadcasters to lose their license simply for making the same editorial decisions they’ve made under presidents of both parties,” Gomez said in a statement reported by the Wall Street Journal.

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