Media

FCC chair: ‘No pressure’ from White House for Disney review

Comments:

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 04/30/26 2:33 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 04/30/26 2:33 PM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr said he was not pressured by President Trump or the White House to open an early review this week of several local broadcast stations owned and operated by Disney.

“No. This was a decision that we made inside this building based on where we were in the enforcement matter,” Carr told reporters during a press briefing on Thursday. “There was no pressure from the outside, there was not suggestion from the outside, call for agency action from the outside. This is based on our assessment of where we were.”

The FCC announced this week it was triggering an early review process for a handful of local Disney-owned stations in major markets like New York, Los Angeles and Houston.

The filing came just a day after Trump and first lady Melania Trump called for ABC late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over jokes he recently made about the first lady being an “expectant widow.”

The quip came just days before a shooting at the Washington Hilton during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. The Trumps and several top administration officials were in attendance and the suspect, Cole Allen, has been charged with making an assassination attempt on the president among other offenses.

Kimmel defended his joke, clarifying that it was about the age difference between Trump and the first lady — not a call to assassination.

The FCC has said it has been investigating Disney for months over its corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies as part of the review.

Disney in a statement this week said it is “confident” its record “demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.”

Critics of the administration argue Carr and the FCC is trying to intimidate major media companies like Disney over content that is critical of the president.

“With respect to President Trump he has every right first amendment right to express a position on this,” Carr said on Thursday. “One of the great things about President Trump is he’s very transparent. He told you publicly his position.”

He added, “He has every right to make the decisions that he’s made and make the public calls that he’s made. And there’s a lot of people out there that agree with that.”

The administration was also highly critical of Kimmel and others following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year. ABC briefly pulled the late-night comedian off the air after comments he made about the late Turning Point USA co-founder, but he was later reinstated.

Add as preferred source on Google