FCC chair says White House did not pressure him to open Disney review

Published: 2026-04-30 14:50:29 ET DIS

Published on 04/30/2026 at 02:50 pm EDT

STORY: :: The FCC chair says the White House did not pressure him to open an early review of Disney after Jimmy Kimmel's joke

:: Washington, D.C. / April 30, 2026

REPORTER: "So, is there, was there any connection? Did you feel any pressure? Was the timing at all, you know, as a result of White House pressure, what happened on Saturday night?"

:: Brendan Carr, FCC Chairman

"No, this was a decision that we made inside this building based on where we were in the enforcement matter. There was no pressure from the outside. There was no suggestion from the outside. There was no call for agency action from the outside. This was based on our assessment of where we were. In respect to President Trump, obviously he has every right, First Amendment right, to express his position on this. One of the great things about President Trump is he's very transparent. He's told publicly his position. He has every right to make the decisions that he's made to make the public calls that he's made. Same with the first lady. There's a lot of people out there that agree with them."

A group representing major U.S. broadcasters on Wednesday called the Federal Communications Commission decision to launch an early review of the eight ABC local station licenses owned by Disney "nearly unprecedented," adding that the decision "creates significant uncertainty for all broadcasters."

The National Association of Broadcasters said the "FCC must be careful to avoid actions that create further instability for the local stations viewers and listeners depend on."

Disney's broadcast licenses were not scheduled to be reviewed before October 2028. After a joke by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel drew calls from the White House for ABC to fire the comedian, the FCC on Tuesday ordered an early license review.