ABC accuses Trump administration of violating free speech rights

ABC this week accused the Trump administration of violating its free speech rights with a regulatory action focused on the talk show “The View,” according to a filing submitted to the Federal Communications Commission.

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In the filing, ABC blasted the federal government for creating a “chilling effect” on First Amendment freedoms with an investigation of whether “The View” broke a requirement that broadcast stations give equal time to political candidates for the same office.

The FCC, which regulates the broadcast airwaves, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on ABC’s filing, which was made public Friday. Disney, which owns ABC, did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

The filing is Disney’s most pointed legal salvo against the Trump administration since the president returned to the White House last year and began sharply criticizing American broadcast networks over their on-air content.

In February, the FCC said it was looking into whether “The View” violated equal-time rules after an appearance by James Talarico, who was then running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Texas. (He went on to win the primary.)

“The FCC has an enforcement action underway on that,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, told reporters at the time.

ABC fired back in its filing this week, insisting that “The View” airs under an exemption to the equal-time rule “granted to it more than twenty years ago.” ABC said “it has never been disputed” that “The View” is a so-called “bona fide” news show, meaning it is not subject to the equal-time standard.

The filing was registered on behalf of KTRK-TV, ABC’s owned station in Houston, which the network said was ordered to file a formal request asking whether the talk show 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,” ABC said.

“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,” the network said.

“Some may dislike certain — or even most — of the viewpoints expressed on ‘The View’ or similar shows. Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views,” ABC added elsewhere in the 52-page document.

“The View” is co-hosted by a panel of women who interview politicians and celebrities. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, two of the show’s hosts, regularly criticize the Trump administration and the president, who in turn has publicly blasted them.

ABC submitted its petition to the FCC a week after the federal agency, in an unusual move, announced it was launching an early review of the eight broadcast licenses owned and operated by ABC, including stations in Los Angeles and New York.

The announcement came amid a clash between the White House and ABC over a joke late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made about first lady Melania Trump. Carr has insisted the license review stems from the agency’s probe into Disney’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices — not “speech.”

The FCC is also investigating DEI practices at Comcast, the parent company of NBC News and its owned stations.

Anna M. Gomez, the lone Democratic appointee on the three-person FCC panel, praised Disney for “choosing courage over capitulation.”

“The days of the FCC as a paper tiger are numbered,” Gomez said in a post on X. “What the public will remember is who complied in advance and who fought back.”