WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A Democratic member of

the Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday that

calls by President Donald Trump to urge the agency to rescind

licenses held by ABC stations would fail in court.

Trump on Tuesday said broadcasting licenses used by

affiliates of Walt Disney's ( DIS ) ABC should be "taken away"

after the Republican president objected to a question posed by a

reporter for the network. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said any

effort to revoke licenses over a reporter's question would not

pass legal muster.

"The FCC is powerless to truly retaliate against a news

network. National networks do not have broadcast licenses, the

stations they own do, but none of these licenses is up for

renewal anytime soon," Gomez said.

Asked how he would respond to Trump's call to pull ABC

station licenses, Republican FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on

Thursday reiterated his view of the need to reinvigorate public

interest standards for broadcasters, adding: "We are always open

minded."

The FCC, an independent federal agency, issues eight-year

licenses to individual broadcast stations, not networks.

Carr on Wednesday said he was opening a review of agreements

between national networks and local broadcast station owners and

wants to make it easier for local broadcasters to opt not to air

national programming if it is not in the public interest.

Disney ( DIS ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gomez said the FCC threats were hollow.

"If the FCC were to take the unprecedented step to revoke a

license on the grounds that reporting by a network is

unfavorable to this administration, it would run headlong into

the First Amendment and fail in court," she said. "This FCC

cannot and will not succeed in its efforts to censor speech and

control the media."

Carr has taken a series of steps to investigate media

companies. In July, he opened a probe into NBC-parent Comcast's ( CMCSA )

relationships with its local broadcast TV affiliates.

In January, Carr reinstated complaints about how ABC News

moderated the pre-election TV debate between then-President Joe

Biden and Trump, and appearances by Vice President and

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on CBS's "60

Minutes" and NBC's "Saturday Night Live."