Joy Behar looks and acts nothing like David Muir or Robin Roberts, but ABC asserts her program, “The View” is entitled to the same protections as program such as “World News Tonight” or “Good Morning America.”
More than 76,000 comments have been filed by the public with the Federal Communications Commission after Disney’s ABC in June urged people tuning into “The View” to weigh in as the company grapples with unorthodox pressure from the Trump administration. The FCC, led by Chairman Brendan Carr, ordered Disney to file for renewals for eight of its stations years ahead of schedule. In filings, Disney has said its applications were made “under protest in response to an unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional order.
Many viewers agree. “I am horrified to see what is happening to broadcasting under this FCC. It is the job of the FCC to ensure that media follows the law and serves the public, not to harrass (sic.) and bully programming with which the current administration disagrees,” said Dana Thomas, one of the people who filed comments. “The FCC should not be selecting what I watch,” wrote Iris Smith, another respondent.
“The commenters are right to be concerned,” ABC said in its filing, made on Monday, July 6. “The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor’s chair.”
