ABC is pushing back hard against the FCC after the agency opened an investigation into The View.
The core of the dispute: whether The View qualifies as a “bona fide” news program. That classification exempts it from the equal time rule, which requires broadcasters to give political opponents equal airtime. The FCC started reexamining this after The View hosted Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for Senate.
ABC’s letter to the FCC is blunt. “The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor’s chair,” the network wrote. It argues the FCC is targeting programs it sees as unfriendly to the current administration.
The FCC originally determined The View was a bona fide news program back in 2002. ABC says nothing about the show has changed since then. Only the political climate around it.
This isn’t the only FCC pressure on Disney-owned ABC. In April, the agency ordered ABC stations to file for early license renewal as part of an investigation into diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
The broader worry here is obvious: if the government gets to decide which shows count as news, editorial independence becomes a political bargaining chip. ABC put it well: “An exemption that protects editorial independence only when the speaker’s politics please those in power protects nothing at all.”
