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The Courts Censorship Government

Disney, ABC Sue FCC Over Threats to Broadcast Licenses (reuters.com) 136

Disney and ABC are suing the FCC to block an early review of eight station licenses, arguing the Trump administration is using the agency's regulatory power to punish the network over programming and editorial decisions it dislikes. Reuters reports: In a lawsuit (PDF) filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Disney said the FCC was seeking to coerce and retaliate against "a network that refuses to bow to the administration's demands," calling the agency's actions an "extraordinary assault on free speech."

Trump has waged an aggressive series of attacks on the news media and the latest move follows a two-year-long battle between Trump and Disney. Last month, Trump again called for ABC stations to lose their licenses because the network refused to air a prime-time speech on elections. The court case will pose a key test of the free speech rights of media outlets. Disney and ABC asked the court (PDF) to quickly issue a temporary restraining order halting the license renewal proceedings and preventing the FCC from scheduling a hearing. The company said the public comment period ended earlier this month and the FCC could act at any time.

The lawsuit alleges that the administration is violating the company's First Amendment free speech rights, saying that the FCC "is using its regulatory power to retaliate against (Disney and ABC) for programming and editorial decisions the administration dislikes." The FCC said the move stemmed from a year-long investigation into whether Disney's diversity policies amounted to unlawful discrimination, an allegation the company denies. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an order on Tuesday directing the company and the FCC to propose a schedule for considering the request for a temporary restraining order and told the agency to notify her if it moves to start the process of revoking the ABC licenses.

Disney, ABC Sue FCC Over Threats to Broadcast Licenses

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  • Thus getting back the money Trump extorted for his librabry.

  • by logjon ( 1411219 ) on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @05:14PM (#66295466)
    You never get rid of the Dane. Would have been easier for everyone if they had done this from the jump instead of capitulating. We've known for centuries that appeasement doesn't work. We already knew when we tried it with Hitler that it didn't work. In 1939, there were already poems about how it doesn't work. But sure. This time was gonna be different. Did it pan out that way? No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but... but it might work for us.
    • It's also another wakeup call for Disney which has given a lot of money to a lot of conservative campaigns in the past, though to be fair they seem to have already figured that out as in 2024 about 80% of their campaign donations were to Democrats.

    • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @08:19PM (#66295820)
      So they're all owned by billionaires. Everything is or at least 90% of everything.

      They are a little nervous that the mad King might try to do something stupid and pointless but make no mistake they weren't particularly put off paying a handful of bribes to Trump with the expectation of quid pro quo.

      I guess what I'm saying is every single fucker involved in this is one of the Danes. None of them are on your side at least none of the people in their leadership. And there aren't a lot of journalists left they all got shit canned for trying to cover Trump honestly in 2024. Hell after Trump arranged for Stephen Colbert to be fired from his high rating show the rest of the late night talk show hosts have backed off noticeably so threats work.

      I think the problem is people are having a hard time wrapping their heads around the fact that America is becoming a fascist Nation. It's that whole it can't happen here problem. Or would I like to call the Dick Cheney effect.
      • So they're all owned by billionaires. Everything is or at least 90% of everything.

        4% of wealth in America is owned by billionaires.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Of course rsilvergun is lying again like he always does. But rsilvergun has got no choice! China has a secret police in every country and no Chinese citizen can refuse to do what they want. So, once a Chinese citizen, always a Chinese citizen. I am very serious, see link here:
          https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/... [www.cbc.ca]

          The only way to save him is to mod him down into oblivion so he can't fulfill his Chinese mission anymore and becomes a useless asset for China.

          In the mean time, rsilvergun is playing psychological warf

        • 90% of all news media is owned by billion.

          Also math is hard. 1000 individuals have 8 trillion dollars in wealth. That's not money anymore it's power. The power to tell you what to do and you're going to do it or they're going to hurt you and your and your family.

          You're a good example of the problem. You can't understand the difference between money and power.

          It works like this. When you have more money and you can spend it's savings. You have more money than you can save its investment. Finally
        • by shilly ( 142940 ) on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @09:24AM (#66296430)

          There were 906 billionaires in Sep 2025 according to Forbes, and they had $7.8tn of assets at that time.
          That’s about the same as the 200,000,000 poorest American collectively owned.
          The vast bulk of America’s remaining 150tn of wealth — about 100tn of it — is owned by the 15m or so that constitute the 90% up but who aren’t billionaires.

          In other words: the majority of Americans own practically none of the wealth; many of the rest are still pretty damn poor; a big chunk of wealth is owned by the rich and very rich; and then there’s a tiny number of billionaires who own an extraordinary amount given their numbers.

        • Correction: Between 37% to 42% of the US belongs to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    • We've known for centuries that appeasement doesn't work.

      That's too strong. Appeasement does work sometimes... when it works we usually call it "compromise" or something similar, though. There's a book "Appeasement in International Politics" that examines a large number of cases where it worked and where it didn't. The author lays out a number of criteria that influence whether it works.:

      1. When the opponents aims are limited and grievance-based.
      2. When the concession addresses the grievance
      3. When the conceding party is strong, so the concession is a cho

  • Projection (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @05:18PM (#66295474)

    The same people who call everyone else snowflakes and like to shout fuck your feelings actually have the most fragile feelings of all.

  • has a very good rep for sticking around for the long haul. This could easily go on long after 2028.

  • Trump is about to learn: You don't fuck with Mickey Mouse.

    Disney takes no prisoners once it gets into a legal battle.

    • He will not learn because these defeats don't affect him personally. But maybe major corporations will learn that you can't bow low enough to satisfy a tyrant, and soon after break stories on the Presidential Diaper Nurse, and various corporate shakedowns that they experienced.
    • Disney got their ass handed to them in Florida. The governor now directly appoints the district supervisors, and they even lost the name of their district. It used to be the case that Disney could throw their weight around and get a favorable legal outcome, but lately the Republicans that have it in for them have been calling Disney's bluff.

      • by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @09:11PM (#66295846) Homepage

        It is an exaggeration [archive.ph] to say "Disney got their ass handed to them." Disney settled that lawsuit and opinion was mixed as to who won. Even a lot of republicans thought DeSantis was being stupid [politico.com].

        • Disney is in a much weaker position since losing control of their district. The settlement reached merely involved the governor replacing some of the district's leaders - a deal that very much could be altered for the worse, should Disney step out of line in the future. The most telling example of how Disney has been operating under this new framework, is how they've more-or-less eliminated their DEI initiatives.

          • You're mixing some timelines. The Desantis spat was over Disney supporting their LGBTQ workforce over the book ban stuff and rhetoric during his presidential bid. Desantis didn't make it, wah wahhhh. Disney still supports people who are really into princesses and pirates and dress up, so...

            They literally just renamed DEI, to something like belonging, inclusion and talent. As was predicted, because nobody could define what DEI was or why they hated it.
            https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]

            But the avoiding of wron

            • Disney's removal of DEI wasn't just swapping some words around on their corporate websites. It came with some real policy changes, but I wouldn't expect a content mill to actually do the proper sort of investigative journalism necessary to find that out.

              I live in Florida and watched this all unfold firsthand, and I've also attended Gay Days at Magic Kingdom this year. The vibe in the park absolutely was not the same. Disney lost their legal battle in Florida and absolutely is toeing the line to avoid dra

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      He's incapably of learning. I don't thing he has learned anything since 1980.

  • While I like to say corporations don't have rights, the government also can't demand obedience to whimsical choices of one bureaucrat. Government controlling corporations according to unwritten rules is fascism or communism. Since the current government is crusading against communism, it would behoove everybody to call the relevant department (here, the FCC), a bunch a communist sympathizers.
  • Mod error

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