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The FCC initiated an “enforcement action” against ABC in February. Chair Brendan Carr has described it as a procedural issue, but Commissioner Anna Gomez has accused the FCC of political partisanship.The FCC began seeking public input as to whether "The View" should be exempt from its equal time rules in May. More than 50,000 comments had been filed by late June.ABC's July 6 filing responded to counterpoints from those who opposed an exemption and also accused the FCC of "chilling speech ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 general election."ABC accused the Federal Communications Commission of "chilling speech ahead of the fast-approaching 2026 general election” in a July 6 legal filing submitted as part of an ongoing proceeding related to the commission’s equal time rules. The FCC initiated an “enforcement action” against the Disney-owned ABC in February after state Rep. James Talarico, D-Texas, appeared on “The View” while running in the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has characterized the matter as a procedural issue, saying ABC hadn’t submitted the proper paperwork declaring an appearance by a political candidate that would open the window for an opposing candidate to request “comparable time and placement.” Commissioner Anna Gomez, whom former President Joe Biden appointed in 2023, however, has accused the FCC of engaging in partisan politics to support President Donald Trump’s objectives. The FCC began accepting public input as to whether "The View" should be exempt from the requirement to offer equal broadcast opportunities to political candidates in May. More than 50,000 comments had been filed by late June, when ABC launched an on-air campaign to encourage public participation in the matter. ABC has maintained that the exemption the FCC granted “The View” in 2002 should remain in place, saying in its July 6 filing that the program “has not materially changed” since then. The filing said the “overwhelming majority” of public comments supported ABC but also responded to counterpoints raised by commenters who opposed an exemption for the show. To those who criticized “The View” for being what they described as “opinion-driven,” for example, the network said denying an exemption based on perspective would be an unconstitutional “prototypical content- or viewpoint-based restriction.” As for some commenters’ concerns about the ratio of right-leaning to left-leaning guests on the show, ABC said the notion of establishing a “government-approved ideological quota” in the name of balance would be “not a regulatory standard, but a surveillance regime.” “The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor’s chair,” the filing said. Gomez concurred in a July 7 X post."You don't have to like their coverage to see the danger here," she wrote. "Handing government the power to decide what's newsworthy and which guests to feature is a threat to press freedom, no matter which party is in charge."The filing also accused the FCC of targeting “daytime and late-night television—programs perceived as unfriendly to the current administration—while leaving untouched the vast landscape of talk radio, where candidates routinely appear without their opponents.” In a separate matter, the FCC in April ordered the Disney-owned ABC to file license renewals for its eight television stations by late May − years ahead of schedule. The order said the commission was investigating the stations “for possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC’s rules, including the agency’s prohibition on unlawful discrimination.” Disney said in response that it was “confident” its “record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels.” An FCC spokesperson said "ABC should focus on complying with its public interest obligations, rather than misleading the public about them" in a July 7 email to USA TODAY.The comment echoed one given in response to ABC's on-air campaign in June. The network addressed such characterizations in its filing, saying "there is nothing 'misleading' about alerting the public that the proceeding could impinge on a broadcaster's editorial discretion over who appears on its programming."BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com. USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
