In First Communication to Disney's New CEO, FCC Commissioner Describes What Appears to Be Entrapment While Encouraging the Company to Stand Firm
May 12, 2026 - WASHINGTON — FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez on Monday sent a letter to Walt Disney Company 
CEO Josh D'Amaro documenting the record of this Administration's campaign of censorship and control against Disney, calling out the FCC's double standard in its selective enforcement against the company, and encouraging Disney to continue fighting. The letter marks the first formal communication to Disney's leadership from a federal regulator since D'Amaro assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer.
“What Disney and ABC are facing is not a series of coincidental regulatory actions but a sustained, coordinated campaign of censorship and control, carried out through the weaponization of the FCC's authority as a federal regulator and aimed at pressuring a free and independent press and all media into submission,” Commissioner Gomez wrote.
The letter traces the censorship campaign from its origins in the settlement of a baseless defamation lawsuit brought against ABC, through a series of investigations into ABC’s debate moderation, diversity programs, and The View, and culminating in an unprecedented early license renewal order against all eight ABC-owned stations, which Commissioner Gomez has called the most egregious First Amendment assault this FCC has taken to date.
“That settlement did not buy you peace. It only bought you time. Disney's experience since then has made one thing undeniable for any company facing the same pressure. You cannot buy this Administration's favor. For the right price, you can only borrow it. And the price always goes up,” Gomez wrote.
The letter calls out a stark double standard at the heart of the FCC's enforcement posture. While the agency has trained its enforcement apparatus on ABC, other broadcasters operating under the exact same rules, in the same markets, aired interviews with political candidates without filing required notices and received no inquiry, no letter, and no investigation whatsoever. Invoking a recent Supreme Court opinion, Commissioner Gomez wrote: “The threat is the point. As Justice Gorsuch reminded us by invoking Justice Thurgood Marshall, 'the value of a sword of Damocles is that it hangs, not that it drops.”
The letter also raises serious questions about the FCC's conduct in its investigation into The View. Based on Disney's own filing, Commissioner Gomez describes what appears to be a form of entrapment where the Commission selectively used the threat of enforcement actions to pressure ABC affiliates into filing paperwork on a candidate appearance and then used the existence of those filings as evidence against Disney's ABC station. “If true, that is a government agency abusing its authority to punish speech it dislikes while protecting speech it favors,” Gomez wrote.
Commissioner Gomez also raises serious concerns about the FCC’s investigation into Disney's diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, noting that the agency’s own rules on this topic are limited to recruitment outreach and say nothing about internal corporate policies. Despite that overreach, Disney produced over 11,000 pages of documents in response to the inquiry. “The FCC's attempt to usurp control over internal corporate decision-making through its limited authority requires reaching for legal power that the statute, agency rules, and the applicable case law simply do not provide,” Gomez wrote.
Commissioner Gomez closed the letter by encouraging Disney to continue fighting, noting the company’s previous successful resistance to government overreach in Florida.
“I am encouraged to see that Disney is choosing courage over capitulation. The fight ahead may not be easy, but the law, the facts, and the public are on your side. This is a fight worth having, and one that I am confident you will win.”
The full letter is available here.
Office of Commissioner Anna M. Gomez: (202) 418-2100
ASL Videophone: (844) 432-2275
www.fcc.gov/leadership/anna-gomez
Source: FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez
