The Federal Communications Commission will not be revoking ABC‘s broadcast licenses over this month’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Despite many conservatives (including Trump) calling for the agency to revoke Disney’s broadcast licenses for ABC after the debate, the FCC‘s chair Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a letter that, as an agency that stands for the First Amendment, it could take no such action.
“The First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Rosenworcel wrote in the letter, addressed to Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) “The Commission does not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
“Out job at the agency is to license broadcast stations in a manner consistent with the Constitution and the Communications Act of 1934 as well as the rules and policies we have adopted pursuant to these laws,” Rosenworcel continued. “There are no exceptions.”
Trump and a number of other prominent Republicans complained about ABC’s handling of the debate and the questions and fact-checking from moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir. In some cases they embraced conspiracies like the idea that the network gave Harris the questions in advance.
Sen. Markey and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) had called on the FCC to reaffirm that it licenses stations based on the law, not based on the content of the network.
