Bay Area TV Station Is Battling The FCC To Stay On The Air: Report

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — ABC7 is calling on viewers to express their support for its Bay Area and Los Angeles stations as the Trump-controlled Federal Communications Commission weighs whether to pull it off the air, according to a report from the East Bay Times.

KGO-TV in San Francisco and KABC in Los Angeles, TV stations within ABC's network, have been caught in the middle of President Donald Trump's latest clash with the media. The network is calling the threat an attack on free speech.

The FCC is reviewing the broadcast license for several stations owned by Disney, ABC's parent company. In addition to KGO-TV, those stations include WABC in New York, WLS in Chicago, WPVI in Philadelphia, KTRK in Houston, WTVD in Raleigh-Durham and KFSN in Fresno.

Trump first challenged ABC station licenses in April, following a controversial monologue by Jimmy Kimmel on his longtime show, where the comedian said First Lady Melania Trump looked like "an expectant widow."

The FCC, in response, asked Disney to reapply early to renew its station license, an unprecedented move that hadn't been seen in decades, according to CNN.

Now, Disney has to argue whether its stations or network is serving public interest. ABC, meanwhile, expects Trump supporters to flood the FCC with complaints to get stations, including KGO-TV, shut down, according to the East Bay Times report.

ABC7 is urging viewers to act quickly by telling the FCC to keep KGO-TV on air. Viewers have until July 29 to submit feedback. So far, tens of thousands of viewers have submitted comments in support of ABC, according to Reuters.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in June that all options remain on the table. Carr also accused Disney of running a "fairly ​standard off-the-shelf PR strategy," according to Reuters.

"We're going to follow the facts and the law wherever ⁠they take this," Carr said, according to Reuters.

The threat to Disney-owned ABC TV stations comes as the president flexes powers granted by the United States Supreme Court last month to fire leaders of previously independent agencies such as the FCC.

"It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers," Trump posted on social media.

It also marks an escalation of Carr's efforts to campaign to punish media critical of Trump.

Anna Gomez is one of the few Democrats who have held onto their seats at federal agencies after Trump fired most of them. She warned of the fallout from the Supreme Court ruling this week.

"When commissioners can be removed for their policy views rather than for cause, the inevitable result is an agency that pulls its punches and defers to political winds rather than the record before it," Gomez said.

She said consumers "will pay the price" in higher costs, fewer choices and slower progress toward connectivity.

ABC has blasted the earlier review as a direct assault on the First Amendment.

“The Order is inconsistent with a legitimate exercise of investigative authority and is plainly incompatible with the First Amendment,” Politico quoted one station's written objections. “Worse, the Order opens the door to an assault on the Station’s license, while the Commission searches for a legal pretext to achieve its desired goal. This effort to suppress speech under the guise of bureaucratic process must not prevail.”

Read more from the East Bay Times and Reuters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.