Trump-Backed Head of the FCC Threatens ABC’s Broadcast License In Fox News Interview

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sat down with Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich on Monday’s edition of The Story and spoke about his agency’s probe into The Walt Disney Company, noting that if he finds Disney engaged in racial “discrimination” under the guise of DEI it “could fundamentally go to their [ABC’s] character qualifications to even hold a license.” Disney is the parent company of ABC, which Trump called in September for the network to lose its license following the presidential debate.

“The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy. The Commission does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” FCC chair under President Joe Biden, Jessica Rosenworcel, said at the time.

“Your probe into Disney’s DEI policies, their senior counsel writes, ‘This is all about bullying and intimidation.’ Mr. Carr’s most powerful tool is his vote on the commission to approve mergers and acquisitions.’ Is this about Disney’s hiring practices or is it about something else?” asked Heinrich.

UPDATE: According to the New York Times article, the quote, “This is all about bullying and intimidation,” was actually said by Andrew Schwartzman — a senior counsel at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.

“Yeah, this is about the hiring practices and their employment practices. Look, broadcasters and Disney owns one, ABC. They have an obligation under federal law. We have EEO rules at the FCC, which means you can’t make hiring decisions based on protected characteristics, including gender and race,” Carr replied, adding:

And the evidence we have so far indicates potentially that Disney and ABC were making employment decisions based on race and gender, including having effectively race-defined affinity groups within the company. We have evidence that they put quotas in place based on specific demographics.

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, but we’re gonna follow the facts wherever they go. Look, President Trump’s been clear, we are turning the page on DEI. The first week I was chairman of the FCC, I said we are ending our own promotion of DEI at the FCC. People would be shocked if they learned the millions of dollars that the FCC alone was spending to promote DEI, we had it listed as our second highest strategic priority.

I mean, think about everything the FCC can and should be doing, national security issues, bridging the digital divide, space economy, and we had promoting DEI as our number two strategic priority. Now we’re going to focus on our core mission.

“And just very, very quickly, because we’re actually completely out of time, but just to be clear, does the FCC think that they have authority to basically tell private companies, not talking about their hiring practices, but their programming? Is their programming up for debate here?” followed up Heinrich.

“Well, what we’re focused on is the personnel practices. I mean, we’ll follow the investigation wherever it goes, but that’s fundamentally where we go. And again, broadcasters are different than cable. They’re different than online speech. They have special access to these airwaves. In exchange, they need to serve the public interest, and that’s what we are going to enforce at the FCC,” Carr replied.

Trump announced Carr would take over the FCC shortly after winning the presidential election in November. Carr was already the senior Republican among the FCC’s current five commissioners and the author of Project 2025’s section on the FCC.

“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

“He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” added the then incoming president.

Carr thanked Trump at the time and said, “We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.” In a later post, he added, “Broadcast media have had the privilege of using a scarce and valuable public resource—our airwaves. In turn, they are required by law to operate in the public interest.”

Watch the clip above via Fox News.