ABC is pushing back hard against the Trump administration's Federal Communications Commission, accusing the regulator of trampling on its First Amendment rights. In a filing made public on Friday, the network said the FCC's "unprecedented" scrutiny of The View and other programming is creating a "chilling effect" on free speech, including political content, and is beyond the agency's authority, reports the New York Times. The dispute began when FCC chief Brendan Carr questioned whether The View qualifies as a legitimate news program exempt from equal-time rules for political candidates running for the same office, despite the show having received that exemption in 2002.
ABC says the commission forced its Houston station to reapply for the exemption after a View interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, while leaving pro-Trump talk radio hosts like Mark Levin and Glenn Beck untouched. The FCC under Carr has also targeted Jimmy Kimmel for political jokes he's made on his late-night show that have irked the Trump administration and conservatives in general, and last month, regulators took "the highly unusual step of reviewing the licenses of all eight of ABC's owned local stations years before they expire," per the Times.
The network, represented by prominent Supreme Court litigator Paul Clement, suggests it may challenge the equal-time and other "public interest" rules more broadly, claiming they're outdated in a saturated media landscape. "The danger is that the government will simply decide which perspectives to regulate and which to leave undisturbed," the network says in its filing, per Deadline. The clash marks a sharp shift for ABC, which previously settled a Trump defamation case for $15 million, as well as underscores rising tensions over how far the government can go in policing alleged media bias.
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