Senator Edward Markey's May 7 letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, signed by eleven other Senate Democrats, asked the commission to rescind its April 28 order requiring Disney's eight owned-and-operated ABC stations to file early license renewals and to answer specific questions by May 21. As of Wednesday, the FCC has not put a substantive reply on the docket. Eight days remain before Disney's May 28 filing deadline.

The paper's May 19 standard, Disney's ABC clock is nine days from the FCC deadline, pulled both deadlines into one frame: a Markey response deadline of May 21 and a Disney filing deadline of May 28. The Markey deadline has now slipped past its first checkpoint without a reply.

The letter, posted to Markey's Senate office site, asks Carr to explain the timing of the April 28 order, the FCC's internal process for issuing it, the legal review behind it, the Bridge News order issued one day earlier, and any open FCC investigations into Disney or ABC stations. It also asks the FCC to rescind the order. [1]

The FCC's silence is the kind of administrative non-action that has two readings. The agency can say, accurately, that congressional oversight letters are not subject to a binding statutory reply window. Critics can say, also accurately, that twelve senators asking the chair to rescind an enforcement order are owed a substantive response on the record. Both are true; one is more useful to Disney.

What is not in dispute is that Disney still has to choose. The corporation can file inside the window, negotiate inside the window, sue, or let the deadline pass with no filing. Each choice produces a different document trail. Until then, the unanswered Markey letter is the press-freedom calendar's first missed-reply receipt.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington