Jane Fonda Denounces FCC’s ABC Licensing Review Amid Kimmel Melania Joke

Jane Fonda, the actor and activist who is the founder of the modern Committee for the First Amendment, has sharply criticized the FCC’s order requiring local ABC-owned Disney stations to apply for early renewals of their broadcast licenses. The agency’s order came Tuesday a day after President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump called on Disney and ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he made about Melania looking like “a widow-to-be.”

“FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s latest order to review the broadcast licenses of all ABC stations is a naked attempt to weaponize government power against dissent,” Fonda said in a statement to Variety.

Fonda continued, “What we are seeing fits a deliberate and deeply disturbing pattern of authoritarianism throughout history — and it should alarm anyone who believes in the First Amendment and the bedrock principle that the government does not have the power to decide who can speak in a free society. Together, we must clearly and forcefully call this out for what it is: the systematic use of federal power to narrow the range of acceptable speech until only sanctioned voices remain.”

The FCC’s Media Bureau said in its order that it requested ABC’s licenses for eight owned-and-operated stations for early review based on an investigation into Disney and ABC over possible violations of the FCC’s “prohibition of unlawful discrimination” — meaning the agency is specifically investigating the media conglomerate’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.

But the timing of the order clearly gave the impression that the FCC was acting in response to conservatives’ outrage over Kimmel’s joke. The licenses for ABC’s eight stations were not due for renewal until 2028 at the earliest, with some as late as 2031.

In a statement about the FCC’s order, a Disney spokesperson said in part: “ABC and its stations have a long track record of operating in full compliance with FCC rules and serving their local communities with trusted news, emergency information and public interest programming. We believe this record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to demonstrate this through the appropriate legal channels.”

The FCC made no comment beyond the Media Bureau’s order.

On the April 27 episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the late-night host defended his comment about Melania as “a very light-hearted joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than me. It was in no way a call for murder. And they know that.” He also said, “I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we must reject,” adding in a comment addressed to the First Lady, “And I think a good time to dial that back is to talk to your husband about it.”

Last October, Fonda relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment, a McCarthy-era initiative founded by her father, Henry Fonda, in the 1940s to protect against attacks on free speech.