WASHINGTON, June 13 -- A broadcast license renewal is supposed to be paperwork. Under Trump's Federal Communications Commission, it has become a weapon. The agency has dragged Disney's ABC stations into an early, years-ahead-of-schedule license review and is now opening the door for the public to formally petition against those renewals, an invitation that all but guarantees a pile-on from the president's allies. Stripped of its regulatory language, the message to one of America's largest broadcasters is simple: your license is now conditional on staying in the government's good graces.

The mechanics are worth understanding because the FCC has worked hard to make them look routine. Disney's eight owned-and-operated ABC stations were not ...