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.

via: Variety

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 a single 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.

ABC officially filed a petition opposing the FCC’s order requiring its Houston affiliate KTRK (ABC13), to file a formal request to the agency about whether “The View” qualifies 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.”

“The View’s” exemption from the equal-time rule “remains valid and the constitutional infirmities in the equal time doctrine are even more pronounced today, when the broadcast airwaves account for a slice of the numerous media options through which Americans get their political information,” ABC said, adding that “the free flow of ideas flourishes on these non-broadcast platforms even though the equal opportunities rule does not apply there.”

The network said the Trump administration “has been open about its disapproval of the viewpoints expressed on ‘The View.’ But the government has no legitimate interest in declaring some viewpoints more worthy than others.”

ABC filed the petition — asking the FCC to “expeditiously affirm that ‘The View’ continues to qualify for the bona fide news interview exemption” — on Thursday (May 7) and it was made public on Friday.

Asked for comment, an FCC spokesperson said in a statement to Variety, “Decades ago, Congress passed a law that generally prohibits broadcast television programs from putting a thumb on the scale in favor of one political candidate over another. Specifically, Congress put protections in place to ensure that covered programs offer legally qualified candidates for office (both Republican and Democrat) equal time on the public airwaves. The equal time law encourages more speech and empowers voters to decide the outcome of elections. The FCC will review Disney’s assertion that ‘The View’ is a ‘bona fide news program’ and thus exempt from the political equal time rules.”

Separately, the FCC’s Media Bureau last week issued an unprecedented order forcing ABC to reapply for spectrum licenses for its eight owned-and-operated stations 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 early 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.

ABC’s filing said that in responding to the FCC’s DEI inquiry, it produced over 6,200 pages of documents between July and September 2025. The company completed its response to a subsequent FCC “supplemental letter of inquiry” on April 21, 2026, by producing an additional 4,839 pages of documents — which, ABC noted, occurred one week before the Media Bureau’s order requiring early license renewal applications for the eight O&Os.

On Friday, Anna Gomez, the only Democratic FCC commissioner, applauded ABC’s pushback on the commission’s probe of “The View” in connection with the equal time rule.

“The days of the FCC as a paper tiger are numbered,” she said in a statement. “What the public will remember is who complied in advance and who fought back. I’m glad Disney is choosing courage over capitulation.”

According to ABC’s filing, the FCC’s equal-time rule “at this point in time it is fundamentally incompatible with bedrock First Amendment principles. If the rule applied here, it would seemingly require every station broadcasting ‘The View’ to provide airtime to every legally qualified candidate running for office in a particular race in their service areas, without regard to the newsworthiness of the candidate.”

Meanwhile, ABC pointed out that the FCC’s public notice seeking comment about the equal-time rule was addressed only to daytime and late-night TV talk shows — and that the agency has “declined to scrutinize other programs or formats, like talk radio.”

Multiple radio stations in Texas have aired interviews on talk shows with select candidates “without provoking any apparent interest or inquiries” from the FCC, per the ABC filing. For example, KPRC 950 AM in Houston broadcast an interview with Texas attorney general primary candidate Chip Roy as part of “The Glenn Beck Program” on Feb. 18, 2026. Roy also appeared on the “Guy Benson Show” on Feb. 11, 2026, which airs on several Texas radio stations, including KSEV 700 AM (Tomball, Texas). And “The Mark Levin Show” on Feb. 16, 2026, featured an interview with Dan Patrick, who is running for re-election for Texas lieutenant governor, which aired on KTBB 97.5 FM (Troup, Texas) and WBAP 820 AM (Fort Worth, Texas).

None of the radio stations have filed documentation with the FCC for those appearances. But the agency “has not made any public announcements that it is investigating ‘The Mark Levin Show,’ ‘The Glenn Beck Program,’ the ‘Guy Benson Show'” or the radio stations that broadcast those interview segments,” ABC’s filing said. “Nor should it. But such a clear disparity in the treatment of broadcasters that ought to be subject to the same treatment under law raises serious concerns about viewpoint discrimination and retaliatory targeting.”