{"id":1241,"date":"2026-05-08T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/08\/abc-calls-fcc-equal-time-investigation-into-the-view-unprecedented-will-chill-free-speech\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T16:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:37:00","slug":"abc-calls-fcc-equal-time-investigation-into-the-view-unprecedented-will-chill-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/08\/abc-calls-fcc-equal-time-investigation-into-the-view-unprecedented-will-chill-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC Calls FCC Equal Time Investigation Into \u2018The View\u2019 \u201cUnprecedented,\u201d Will \u201cChill\u201d Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\t \t \t\t<\/svg>\t\tLogo text<\/span> \t<\/a> <\/p>\n

\tThe Walt Disney Co.\u2019s ABC<\/a> network and its Houston TV station KTRK responded to the FCC<\/a>\u2018s equal-time investigation into The View<\/a><\/em> by calling it \u201cunprecedented\u201d and an affront to free speech in a blistering letter asking for a declaratory ruling.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cUncertainty as to the scope of broadcast licensees\u2019 editorial discretion threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come,\u201d the filing states.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe Commission\u2019s order to file this Petition for Declaratory Ruling is\u00a0unprecedented, beyond the Commission\u2019s authority, and counterproductive to the Commission\u2019s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion,\u201d it adds. \u201cThe Commission\u2019s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tFor background: In January the FCC announced plans to change<\/a> its long-standing rules around \u201cequal opportunity\u201d for political candidates. The change was seen at the time as targeting shows like The View<\/em>, Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em> and The Late Show<\/em>, which often feature political guests.<\/p>\n

\tSources noted to THR<\/em><\/a> that political guests at The View<\/em> seemed to disappear in the wake of the Talarico investigation.<\/p>\n

\tAn appearance from Senate hopeful James Talarico in February sparked an FCC inquiry into the matter, questioning whether The View<\/em> qualifies as a \u201cbona fide\u201d news program, and is thus exempt from the equal time rules. Disney says that The View<\/em> has had an exemption on the books dating back to 2002.<\/p>\n

\tThe concern from ABC is that the FCC is targeting the program for purely political reasons.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSome may dislike certain\u2014or even most\u2014of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows.\u00a0Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views,\u201d the filing states.\u00a0\u201cThe government does not get to decide \u2018what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.\u2019 Or which \u2018ideas and beliefs [are] deserving of expression [and] consideration.\u2019 \u00a0The danger is that the government will simply decide which perspectives to regulate and which to leave undisturbed.\u00a0In fact, while the Commission now questions The View\u2019s decades-long exemption, it has not expressed any inclination to apply a similar interpretation of the equal opportunities rule to other broadcasters, including the many voices\u2014conservative and liberal\u2014on broadcast radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe filing also notes that \u201cover the past two seasons, for example, producers have extended invitations to JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Elon Musk, Kevin McCarthy, and Marco Rubio, each of whom declined the invitation to appear on the program.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe critical consideration, however, is not whether the program achieves some government-approved roster of participants but the fact that that the producers\u2019 decisions are not motivated by partisan purposes and are instead motivated by the desire to interview the most newsworthy and impactful guests,\u201d it continues.<\/p>\n

\tThe FCC, of course, called in all of Disney\u2019s broadcast licenses<\/a> for an early renewal last month, giving the company until May 28 to respond. Disney connects the dots between the investigation into The View<\/em> and Jimmy Kimmel and the broadcast license move, which is ostensibly tied to Disney\u2019s DEI practices.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe View<\/em>\u2019s exemption remains valid and the constitutional infirmities in the equal time doctrine are even more pronounced today, when the broadcast airwaves account for a slice of the numerous media options through which Americans get their political information,\u201d the filing states.\u00a0\u201cIndeed, the marketplace of ideas has never been more robust, and people can hear virtually any brand of political commentary by listening to a podcast, watching cable, scrolling social media, or streaming on a phone, computer or connected TV.\u00a0The free flow of ideas flourishes on these non-broadcast platforms even though the equal opportunities rule does not apply there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Logo text The Walt Disney Co.\u2019s ABC network and its Houston TV station KTRK responded to the FCC\u2018s equal-time investigation into The View by calling it \u201cunprecedented\u201d and an affront to free speech in a blistering letter asking for a declaratory ruling. \u201cUncertainty as to the scope of broadcast licensees\u2019 editorial discretion threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come,\u201d the filing states. \u201cThe Commission\u2019s order to file this Petition for Declaratory Ruling is\u00a0unprecedented, beyond the Commission\u2019s authority, and counterproductive to the Commission\u2019s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion,\u201d it adds. \u201cThe Commission\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[336,786,2,787,85,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc","category-fcc","category-hollywood","category-the-view","category-tv","category-tv-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}