ABC News

Overview

ABC News is in a courtroom fight over whether the federal government can pressure a newsroom through its broadcast licenses. In August 2026, Disney, ABC News, and eight ABC-owned local stations filed a federal lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission, accusing the agency — and specifically FCC Chair Brendan Carr — of an “unconstitutional retaliatory campaign” against ABC over programming and commentary the Trump administration dislikes (Broadband TV News). The network’s case asks a court to freeze an accelerated license-renewal review that the FCC started in April, which Disney calls an “existential threat” to its stations (Broadband TV News). Broadcast veterans quoted by USA Today described the network-versus-regulator clash as an unprecedented conflict (USA Today).

That fight sits on top of a strange year for the news division of Disney’s ABC television network. ABC News, the unit behind Good Morning America and the Sunday politics program This Week, paid $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library in late 2024 to settle a defamation suit (AP). In 2026, its flagship morning show lost the No. 1 ratings slot to NBC’s Today for the first time in 14 years, and the network is weighing a shakeup (New York Post). The standard profile of ABC News recites its programs and its Disney parentage; the 2026 story is a network fighting on two fronts — in court and in the ratings.

The lawsuit: “licensing viewpoints”

The legal war runs on a timeline. In April 2026 the FCC ordered ABC to file license renewals ahead of schedule, saying it was investigating “possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination” (USA Today). Eight stations were swept up: the ABC-owned outlets in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Houston, Fresno, and Durham (Broadband TV News). Under normal circumstances those stations would not face renewal until 2028 at the earliest — some not until 2031 — and the agency had not forced an early license renewal in more than 50 years (Broadband TV News). Instead, all eight were ordered to file renewal applications within 30 days, compressing a months-long process into a single month (Broadband TV News).

The timing is the core of Disney’s argument. The FCC issued the early-renewal order one day after President Trump publicly demanded that ABC fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump (Broadband TV News). The complaint also cites Trump’s repeated criticism of ABC and his past suggestion that broadcast licenses should “be terminated” (Broadband TV News). Carr has rejected any suggestion that political pressure or Kimmel’s remarks influenced the FCC’s decision (Broadband TV News). Disney complied with the renewal directive but filed its applications “under protest,” calling the order “unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional” (Broadband TV News).

The lawsuit, filed in August, opens with the declaration that “Government censorship is profoundly un-American” and argues the administration has used the FCC as a tool to punish ABC for content it dislikes (Broadband TV News). In the company’s words: “Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts” (Broadband TV News). The suit asks for a temporary restraining order halting the accelerated review while the case proceeds (Broadband TV News).

September turned the case up a notch. In early September the FCC asked the court to dismiss the suit, arguing the matter was outside the district court’s jurisdiction and that ABC had “shown – at most – minimal and self-inflicted effects on speech” (USA Today). ABC answered on Sept. 17, asking the court to deny the dismissal bid and instead bar the FCC from taking further action on the early renewals while litigation continues (USA Today). The network’s filing said the FCC had not disproven the retaliation claim and pointed to Carr’s public statements — his assertion that Disney and ABC “can do this the easy way or the hard way” — as proof that “the purpose of the Commission’s call for early license renewal is not to investigate discrimination; it is to license viewpoints” (USA Today). ABC called the order a “grossly disproportionate” response that “departs dramatically” from the FCC’s typical handling of alleged noncompliance (USA Today).

The network picked up heavyweight backing. On Sept. 17 nearly 20 former FCC officials, including former chairmen, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of ABC, saying they had “watched with growing alarm as the agency they once stewarded has unleashed a wide-ranging campaign of threats and retaliation to bring an independent press to heel” (USA Today). The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and PEN America filed a joint brief saying “immediate intervention” from the court was “vital to halt this gross misuse of executive power” (USA Today). But the FCC has its own backers: America First Legal, the nonprofit law firm co-founded by White House adviser Stephen Miller, said in a Sept. 16 filing that ABC “chose to break” the FCC’s broadcast rules and “risked the very investigation and potential consequences they now face,” while the Center for American Rights and the Media Research Center previously filed petitions accusing ABC of political bias and failing to operate in the public interest (USA Today). A separate FCC inquiry into ABC’s equal-time rules is also running; the network accused the FCC in a July filing of “chilling speech ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 general election” (USA Today).

Where the feud began

The network’s problems with the president predate the license fight. On Dec. 14, 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’s inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll (AP). The claim came during a March 10 segment of This Week, in an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, and it misstated the verdicts in Carroll’s two lawsuits — neither involved a finding of rape as defined under New York law (AP). Under the settlement, ABC also posted a note on its website expressing regret over the claim and paid $1 million in legal fees to Trump’s lawyer (AP). In a statement, ABC News said it was “pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing” (AP).

Read in sequence, the settlement and the 2026 license fight form one arc: a network that paid $15 million to end a defamation case with Trump, then found its broadcast licenses under early-review pressure one day after the president demanded a host’s firing (AP; Broadband TV News). The FCC and its defenders frame the renewal order as ordinary enforcement; the network calls it a pretext, part of a campaign that “began early in Trump’s presidency and has escalated” (Broadband TV News). The courts will decide which story holds.

Owned by Disney since 1996

ABC News sits inside one of the oldest cross-ownership stories in American media. Disney’s relationship with the ABC television network did not begin with the merger — it began in 1954, when Walt Disney agreed to produce an anthology television series for the network, and in return ABC invested in his Disneyland theme park, a relationship that lasted until 1961 (D23). Disney’s then-chairman Michael Eisner had himself worked his way up at ABC to senior vice president in charge of programming and development before running Disney (D23).

In 1995 Disney decided to merge with Capital Cities/ABC, and stockholders officially approved the agreement in 1996 — a $19 billion deal that gave Disney all or part ownership of more than two dozen television channels, including ABC, ESPN, the History Channel, A&E, and Lifetime, along with 21 radio stations and more than 100 publications (D23). Eisner later said he dealt directly with ABC because he had worked there for a decade: “It was like buying a house from a cousin” (D23). That cousin relationship is now the structure under stress: the parent company Disney is suing the federal regulator alongside its own news division (Broadband TV News).

The morning-show crisis

While the lawyers fight, the ratings are slipping. In the 2025–26 season, Good Morning America drew 2.8 million total viewers and 477,000 viewers in the 25–54 demographic, while NBC’s Today pulled 2.9 million total viewers and 612,000 in the demo (New York Post). It was the first time Today finished on top since the 2011–12 season, ending a run that stretched back to the Matt Lauer–Ann Curry era (New York Post). Today got help: a big audience spike as viewers followed the story of co-host Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother, plus NBC’s carriage of the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl this year (New York Post).

ABC insiders point to problems closer to home. Co-hosts Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan, and George Stephanopoulos are rarely on set together — one ABC source said the trio is “never” in the studio at the same time, with “someone is always on vacation,” on assignment, or working on another project (New York Post). One insider described the off-camera chemistry in blunt terms: “Robin and George detest each other and Robin is jealous of Michael. It’s palpable. They don’t like each other” (New York Post). Another source close to the show disputed that, calling them “the longest running anchor team and they’re the best at what they do and it shows” (New York Post). What is not disputed is the money: sources said each host earns north of $15 million a year, and “they’re going to need to cut their salaries significantly — and no one wants to take a pay cut” (New York Post).

ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic is “very concerned” and “very hands-on,” two network insiders told the Post, and executive producer Simone Swink could be on the chopping block if the show does not turn things around — though a source familiar with the show defended Swink as “the best person to lead the show” (New York Post). Another line of criticism targets the content itself: under Swink’s leadership, sources said GMA has leaned into sponsor-driven segments that turn viewers off (New York Post). One example cited was a Sept. 15 segment in which skier Lindsey Vonn spoke with GMA’s Ginger Zee about recovering from a crash at the Olympics — after Zee noted the segment was sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals — and Vonn discussed her doctor’s recommendation of Vertex’s non-opioid prescription pain drug Journavx (New York Post). A TV producer called it “really unethical,” saying advertisers were “using the good name of ABC News to hawk their products — and the network is welcoming it” (New York Post). A former GMA executive summed up the broader complaint: “There’s too much Disney synergy. Too much commercialization. I hate to say it, I love the show, but it’s unwatchable now and it’s unrecognizable” (New York Post). A representative for ABC News and GMA declined to comment (New York Post).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not claim ABC’s 1943 founding date — the commonly cited origin as successor to the NBC Blue Network could not be verified against a fully-read citable source, so it is left out rather than repeated on faith. It does not take a position on whether the FCC’s early-renewal order is legitimate enforcement or political retaliation: the FCC’s stated rationale and ABC’s “licensing viewpoints” accusation are both reported as the parties’ claims, because the case is in court and no judge has ruled. It does not state the 1943 network history or the launch dates of 20/20, Nightline, or Good Morning America, which were leads only. It does not confirm the $15-million-plus anchor salaries — the New York Post’s sources could not pin down exact figures, and ABC declined to comment. And it does not predict the outcome of the FCC litigation, the GMA shakeup talks, or the equal-time inquiry: all three are open questions at the time of writing.