ABC Says Trump’s FCC Probe Into ‘The View’ Over Equal-Time Rule Threatens to ‘Chill Critical Protected Speech’

Disney’s ABC is firing back at the FCC, accusing the agency of engaging in actions that “threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.” The issue involves an FCC investigation into whether talk-show “The View” qualifies for an exemption to the agency’s equal-time political rule but ABC argues that implications are broader than just one TV show.

Earlier this year, the FCC initiated enforcement proceedings of what Trump-appointed chairman Brendan Carr alleged were violations of the equal time rule involving political candidates by “The View” daytime talk show over an appearance by James Talarico, a Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas.

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ABC officially filed a petition opposing the FCC’s order requiring its Houston affiliate, KTRK, to file a formal request asking whether “The View” qualified for the exemption.

“The Commission’s order to file this Petition for Declaratory Ruling is unprecedented, beyond the Commission’s authority, and counterproductive to the Commission’s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion. The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly,” ABC said in the filing.

ABC’s filing continued, “The View has been broadcasting under a bona fide news exemption granted to it more than twenty years ago, consistent with longstanding Commission interpretations designed to minimize the serious First Amendment problems inherent in the equal time regime.”

ABC filed the petition on Thursday (May 7) and it was made public on Friday. Variety has reached out to the FCC seeking comment.

Separately, the FCC’s Media Bureau last week issued an unprecedented order forcing ABC to reapply for spectrum licenses on an accelerated schedule — a move that came as President Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired over a joke the late-night host made about First Lady Melania Trump.

The FCC has officially claimed the ABC license review is pursuant to the agency’s investigation into Disney and ABC’s potential violations of discrimination rules via the media conglomerate’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. When Carr was asked at a press conference if the Kimmel joke about Melania Trump would play a part in the FCC’s review of the ABC licenses, Carr said Disney is “going to have to come in and demonstrate that they’ve been operating in the public interest” — and he that said as part of the process “anybody can file petitions” requesting the agency deny ABC’s license renewals, which the FCC will review.