FCC orders review of ABC licenses after Kimmel joke offends Trump and first lady

The uproar is over a Kimmel joke during a skit in which he pretended to deliver a roast at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. “Our first lady, Melania, is here… So beautiful, Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow,” Kimmel said. Kimmel also suggested in his pretend roast that Trump and his wife were introduced to each other by Jeffrey Epstein. ABC owns eight TV stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, and Fresno. The stations’ licenses were originally scheduled for renewals between 2028 and 2031, a Disney spokesperson told Ars today. “ABC and its stations have a long record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information, and public‑interest programming,” Disney said in a statement provided to Ars. “We are confident that 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.” Anna Gomez, the only Democratic FCC commissioner, said in a statement today that the Disney review “is the most egregious action this FCC has taken in violation of the First Amendment to date. As part of its ongoing campaign of censorship and control, the White House called publicly for the silencing of a vocal critic, and this FCC has now answered that call. This is an unprecedented and politically motivated attempt to interfere with how broadcasters operate, and this unlawful overreach will fail. This should be a lesson to media companies that no amount of capitulation to this administration will buy them protection. The only choice is to stand up and stand firm in defense of the First Amendment.” Media advocacy group Free Press said that demanding an early license renewal “is an extremely rare escalation.” Free Press co-CEO Jessica J. González said, “Carr will try to dress up this latest attack like a legitimate FCC procedure, but his motivations are clear. He is using his position of power to silence dissent at the president’s beck and call… The timing of this move suggests unconstitutional retribution for a joke Donald Trump didn’t like.” Melania Trump called for Kimmel’s firing in an X post. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy… People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him,” the first lady wrote. Kimmel discussed the controversy over his skit in last night’s monologue. “There was no big reaction to it until this morning when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm and a call to fire me from our first lady, Melania Trump, saying I should be fired because of a joke I made five nights ago,” Kimmel said. Kimmel said he made “a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that. I have been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence.” Addressing the first lady, Kimmel said, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject, and I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.” Today’s FCC announcement of the Disney probe came several hours after a group of former FCC chairs and commissioners asked a federal appeals court to compel the FCC to respond to a November 2025 petition to repeal the agency’s 1960s-era news distortion policy. “If the writ is granted, the FCC will be required to take a position on whether to repeal or uphold the news distortion policy, which FCC Chair Brendan Carr has abused to chill free speech in the press,” said a press release announcing today’s court filing. The filing was submitted by former FCC leaders from both major political parties along with the Radio Television Digital News Association, which represents broadcast journalists.