ABC accuses FCC of chilling The View's First Amendment rights to be The View

The regulatory eye of Brendan Carr's FCC has been fixed on ABC for months, and ABC is finally doing something about it. 

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  May 8, 2026 | 1:33pm
Image: ABC/Jose Alvarado, Jr.
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ABC accuses FCC of chilling The View's First Amendment rights to be The View

After months of threats, Disney is finally standing up to the FCC rather than needlessly pulling one of its stars from the air. Deadline reports that Disney and ABC have filed a petition with the FCC in defense of The View, upholding the show’s 25-year history as a political interview show and accusing the FCC of weaponizing equal time rules to “chill” free speech. As a regularly scheduled political talk show, ABC argues that The View should receive the benefits of a bona fide news exemption, a criterion that The View has met since the FCC investigated it in 2002 and granted the exemption. That status has gone unchallenged until Carr, a key architect in the Project 2025 strategy that has thus far resulted in the free, fair, and stable society we’re all enjoying today, took over and began using it against The View and other Trump critics. Pulling the exemption now, Disney says, would be harmful to democracy, which assumes the FCC wants a healthy democracy but is nevertheless true.

“As the 2026 election approaches, the American people need more access to political news and more exposure to political candidates, not less,” the filing reads. “It is therefore imperative that the Commission act quickly to assure broadcasters that it will uphold its long-established standards protecting broadcasters’ good faith news judgment in including political candidates in bona fide news programming. To do anything else—on the eve of an election cycle—would compound the uncertainty and resulting First Amendment chill that the Commission’s recent actions have engendered.” 

Over the last year, Carr has attempted to make an example of ABC, turning his regulatory eye on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The View, two regular bugbears of President Trump. Amid failing to strong-arm broadcasters into pulling Jimmy Kimmel after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Carr’s FCC began investigating The View following an appearance of Texas House Representative James Talerico. To be fair, CBS pulled Stephen Colbert’s interview with Talerico over the threats (and because of, you know, CBS’ fealty). But nothing gets under the Teflon Don’s skin quite like Joy Behar’s opinion, so last week, the FCC called for a review of Disney and ABC’s broadcast licenses under the Communications Act’s public interest standard.

 
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