ABC took the FCC to court. The licenses were not even due yet.

Disney and ABC sued the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington. They want a judge to stop an order that pulled eight ABC-owned stations into license renewal years before those licenses were set to come up, between 2028 and 2031. That is a complaint. It is not a win.

The complaint, signed by Beth Wilkinson and Paul Clement, says the April order gave the stations 30 days to file renewals that ordinarily take months, and that the government has been escalating from attacks on ABC's reporting and entertainment into demands that the licenses themselves come off. ABC asked for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. It also pointed at a probe of The View and at Trump's public shots at Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about Melania Trump. Those are ABC's claims about motive.

An FCC spokesman, as quoted by ABC News and CBS, said every broadcaster has to operate in the public interest, that the commission has been looking at claims of illegal DEI discrimination at Disney for more than a year, and that Disney is running disinformation because it does not want that proceeding to continue. “The FCC will continue to follow the facts and law wherever they lead.” The agency has not, in that statement, admitted retaliation. Disney has not, in the complaint, proved it.

ABC says the commission had not forced an early renewal in more than 50 years. That figure is the company's, in the filing. This desk is not treating a 45-page complaint as a verdict, and it is not treating an FCC talking point as one either.