ABC is accusing the Trump administration’s media regulator of threatening broadcasters’ First Amendment rights.
In an extraordinary legal letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the network accuses the agency of threatening “to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.”
At issue, specifically, is “The View,” ABC’s daytime talk show that has become a popular destination for politicians, particularly Democrats.
But ABC’s letter to the FCC, signed by prominent conservative attorney and Supreme Court litigator Paul Clement, says the government is posing a broader threat to free speech and political discussion.
“Uncertainty as to the scope of broadcast licensees’ editorial discretion threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come,” Clement wrote.
