Disney and ABC are the targets of a “sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control” orchestrated by the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission, the lone Democrat on the regulatory panel said Monday.
In a remarkable letter to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro, FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez decried the political “weaponization” of the federal media regulator under Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump.
“You are not the first target of this campaign, and you will not be the last,” Gomez wrote in the letter, which she posted to her X account. “But Disney’s experience is, by now, the most documented, and it is worth laying out plainly.”
Gomez, a telecommunications lawyer whom President Joe Biden appointed to a seat on the FCC, highlighted a series of FCC regulatory actions that she said were “aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission.” She vowed to “shine a light on what the FCC is doing to curtail press freedom.”
Disney and the FCC’s media relations office did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment Monday. The Wall Street Journal first reported Gomez’s letter.
In the four-page letter, Gomez said the Trump administration’s crusade against Disney and ABC “began in earnest” after the broadcast network agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump brought before he was re-elected to the White House. The settlement “did not buy you peace,” Gomez told D’Amaro. “It only bought you time.”
Gomez laid out the ways she believes the FCC then “pursued” Disney’s business holdings on multiple fronts, including its decision under Carr to revive a complaint about ABC’s moderation of a 2024 election debate between Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I suspect there will be no end in sight for that investigation,” said Gomez, who has been on the three-person panel since September 2023. (The third commissioner is Olivia Trusty, whom Trump appointed.)
Gomez ticked through other FCC moves focused on Disney, including an investigation into its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices launched last year; an investigation into whether “The View” violated equal-time rules for political candidates; and an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses in the eight markets where it owns stations.
The FCC announced the license review a day after the White House called on ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he had made about first lady Melania Trump. First Amendment advocates said they believed the FCC was punishing ABC for Kimmel’s comments. Carr said the review grew out of the agency’s probe into Disney’s DEI policies.
The FCC is also investigating DEI practices at Comcast, the parent company of NBC News, and reviewing a so-called news distortion complaint at CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview with Harris that aired before the 2024 election. Comcast and CBS have said they would cooperate with the probes.
Disney fired back at the FCC last week, submitting a blistering petition accusing the Trump administration of violating the First Amendment and creating a “chilling effect” on free speech rights. The filing was focused principally on the FCC probe of “The View.”
Gomez has routinely criticized FCC conduct under Carr over the last year, though the letter to D’Amaro is one of her most detailed and pointed salvos to date. She wrote that she believes the agency’s investigations into Disney will not withstand judicial scrutiny — but that was its design.
“The threat is the point,” Gomez wrote.
