In a petition filed Monday with the Federal Communications Commission, the Media Research Center expanded its offensive against Disney and ABC.
Speaking on behalf of seven petitioners, MRC President David Bozell made the case that ABC had wronged them and the American people by attempting to influence elections for their own political interests, the spreading of misinformation, and the promotion of political violence. The MRC contended this was a violation of their broadcast license, thus it should bar the licenses from being renewed.
“Walt Disney’s American Broadcasting Company (ABC) has First Amendment rights. It does not have a right to public spectrum,” Bozell wrote. “Because of ABC’s continued and sustained abuse of the licenses subject to the current review, its notorious efforts to improperly influence national elections, and its willful engagement in misinformation and the promotion of violence, Petitioners request that these licenses not be renewed.”
The petition noted that a critical part of being granted the privilege of using the broadcast spectrum, which is managed by the federal government, was that broadcasters were required to act with care and promised to operate in the best interests of the public.
The MRC makes the case that that promise was willfully broken and trampled on; not just by ABC proper, but also by the eight local affiliates they own and which rebroadcast their content:
Unfortunately, ABC has broken its promise and not acted in the public interest. Instead, it has used the spectrum possessed by WABC-TV and its sister ABC subsidiaries in a manner that has injured Petitioners, and the American public at large.
ABC’s eight owned-and-operated stations include WABC-TV (New York), KFSN-TV (Fresno), KABC-TV (Los Angeles), KGO-TV (San Francisco), WLS-TV (Chicago), WTVD (Durham), WPVI-TV (Philadelphia), and KTRK-TV (Houston). They have used public spectrum to suppress news coverage of the most critical stories of our day; to engage in electioneering and relentless political bias; to excuse, minimize, and even justify the epidemic of political violence; and to peddle misinformation and defamation.
It’s worth noting that most affiliates with ABC in their call letters were actually own by ABC.
“If WABC-TV and its sister subsidiaries’ licenses are not renewed, ABC will continue to be able to exercise its free speech rights. It will be free to engage the American public as a partisan activist group through avenues not subsidized by the American people,” Bozell added. “In addition, the American people and their government will be protected from a media conglomerate that wants to unlawfully use public resources for its own political schemes.”
In requesting the FCC to not renew ABC’s licenses, the petitioners informed the commission that even without access to the broadcast spectrum, “It has numerous, non-public spectrum avenues to express whatever opinions it wishes.”