Licensing or regulatory power as leverage
Licensing-as-leverage is the use of regulatory power the government holds over outlets — FCC broadcast licensing, antitrust review of media consolidations, public-airwaves access rules — to influence coverage. Concrete forms include threats of license non-renewal directed at networks whose coverage is unwelcome, antitrust action selectively applied to media companies whose owners' politics displease the administration, and the use of regulatory comment periods or merger reviews as opportunities for political pressure. Legitimate regulatory action follows the regulatory standard; leverage is what happens when the standard bends around the coverage.
Documented entries (5)
2026
FCC orders early license review of Disney's ABC stations a day after Trump demands Kimmel's firing
On April 28, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission ordered The Walt Disney Company to file early renewal applications within 30 days for the eight ABC-owned broadcast television stations it operates, licenses not otherwise due for renewal for years. The order came one day after President Trump publicly demanded that ABC fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump. The FCC cited an open investigation into Disney's diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a rationale widely viewed as pretextual given the timing.
FCC Chair Carr boasts at CPAC that Trump is 'winning' against the 'fake news media'
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas on March 27, 2026, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr declared that President Trump "is winning" his fight against the "fake news media," citing the defunding of PBS and NPR, the departures of named journalists and hosts, and ownership changes at CBS and CNN as "results." Carr added the administration was "not at the point yet" of "raising the mission accomplished flag," a week after he had warned broadcasters they would "lose their licenses" over Iran War coverage he called "hoaxes and news distortions."
FCC Chair Carr threatens broadcasters' licenses over Iran war coverage
On Saturday, March 14, 2026, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly warned that television broadcasters "running hoaxes and news distortions" about the war in Iran could "lose their licenses," telling them to "correct course before their license renewals come up." Carr issued the threat while amplifying a Truth Social post by President Trump attacking war coverage by outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Media-law experts and lawmakers called the threat from the nation's chief broadcast regulator "authoritarian" and "unconstitutional."
2025
Trump threatened TV broadcast license revocations; FCC chair targeted The View's news-program status
On September 18, 2025, President Trump publicly threatened to revoke broadcast licenses of television networks he deemed biased, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr questioned whether ABC's daytime talk show The View still qualified as a "bona fide news program" — a reclassification that would subject ABC affiliates to the FCC's equal-opportunity rule, requiring equal airtime for any political candidate appearing on the show. Trump explicitly deferred to Carr to determine whether licenses "should be taken away," and the FCC's lone Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, characterized the agency's conduct as a "campaign of censorship and control."
FCC Chair Carr threatened ABC license action over Kimmel's Charlie Kirk comments; ABC indefinitely suspended Kimmel
On September 17, 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly threatened ABC affiliates with regulatory consequences if they did not act against late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over Kimmel's recent comments about Charlie Kirk. Within hours, Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group — both with transactions pending FCC approval — announced they would preempt Kimmel's show, and ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely that same day. Former FCC senior official Gigi Sohn called it "the most blatant" use of the FCC's bully pulpit to intimidate a major network in the history of the agency.