The FCC separately has taken aim at ABC\u2019s daytime discussion show, \u201cThe View,\u201d which delves deeply into politics. <\/p>\n
The FCC has questioned whether the show, which prominently features Trump critics Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, could continue toclaim an exemption to rules that require broadcasters to provide equal time for opponents of political candidates. <\/p>\n
In its response this week to the FCC, Disney\u2019s Houston television station raised the stakes in \u201cThe View\u201d dispute, calling the commission\u2019s actions \u201cunprecedented\u201d and \u201cbeyond the Commission\u2019s authority.\u201d The ABC station\u2019s petition for a declaratory ruling said \u201cThe View,\u201d has long qualified as a \u201cbona fide\u201d news interview program with freedom to conduct interviews of legally qualified political candidates. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commission\u2019s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly,\u201d the Houston station KTRK-TV said in the filing.<\/p>\n
The network\u2019s firm stance sets up a clash with the Trump administration, including the president\u2019s hand-picked FCC Chairman Brendan Carr,<\/a> who has made no secret of his disdain for Kimmel and other ABC programming. Earlier this year, Carr announced that decades-old exemptions from the so-called \u201cequal time rule,\u201d for some programs, including \u201cThe View,\u201d were no longer valid. <\/p>\n In a statement, the FCC said it would \u201creview Disney\u2019s assertion that \u2018The View\u2019 is a \u2018bona fide news program\u2019 and thus exempt from the political equal time rules,\u201d according to a spokesperson.<\/p>\n \u201cDecades 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,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cThe equal time law encourages more speech and empowers voters to decide the outcome of elections.\u201d<\/p>\n ABC\u2019s strenuous arguments mark a turning point for the Disney-owned outlet. <\/p>\n In December 2024, a month after Trump was elected to a second term, the network quickly settled a lawsuit<\/a> over statements made by news anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump found offensive. ABC agreed to pay Trump $15 million to end his legal fight \u2014 sparking an outcry among free speech advocates, who accused the network of caving on a case it may have won.<\/p>\n But, over the past year, the network has weathered several storms, including a threat by Carr in September to punish ABC if it didn\u2019t muzzle Kimmel for comments he made in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s death. ABC briefly benched Kimmel<\/a> to allow tensions to cool but, during the week his show was off the air, protesters loudly bashed Disney, demanding the legendary company stand up for free speech. <\/p>\n Thousands of consumers canceled their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions in protest<\/a>. <\/p>\n Protesters swarmed Hollywood Boulevard, protesting ABC\u2019s move to bench Jimmy Kimmel in September over comments he made about the shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. <\/p>\n (Genaro Molina\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Some conservatives, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)<\/a> and commentator Ben Shapiro<\/a> also criticized Carr\u2019s handling of 1st Amendment issues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe days of the FCC as a paper tiger are numbered,\u201d the FCC\u2019s lone Democrat, Anna M. Gomez<\/a>, said Friday in a statement. \u201cWhat the public will remember is who complied in advance and who fought back. I\u2019m glad Disney is choosing courage over capitulation.\u201d<\/p>\n The high-profile dispute presents an early challenge for Disney Chief Executive Josh D\u2019Amaro<\/a>, who succeeded longtime chief Bob Iger<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n ABC has asked for the full commission \u2014 a three member panel of Carr, Gomez and Commissioner Olivia Trusty, a Republican \u2014 to rule on the equal time exemption for \u201cThe View.\u201d ABC said that, in 2002, it received a ruling from the FCC that granted the exemption, and the show\u2019s format has not changed. \u201cThe View\u201d is produced by ABC News.<\/p>\n \u201cSome may dislike certain \u2014 or even most \u2014 of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows,\u201d the station said in its filing. \u201cSuch dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views.\u201d <\/p>\n ABC described a logistical nightmare of providing equal time for political opponents by pointing to California\u2019s crowded primary field<\/a> of gubernatorial candidates. \u201cAffording equal time would mean accommodating over 60 legally qualified candidates, regardless of their perceived newsworthiness,\u201d the station wrote.<\/p>\n The network said it makes show bookings based on newsworthiness, not partisan politics. It also noted it has invited politicians from both sides of the aisle to appear on \u201cThe View,\u201d but some, including Vice President J.D. Vance, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr<\/a>., Secretary of State Marco Rubio and entrepreneur Elon Musk, have declined the invitation.<\/p>\n The station also noted that, while the FCC has questioned the exemption for \u201cThe View,\u201d the agency hasn\u2019t shown interest in regulating programs on other networks, \u201cincluding the many voices \u2014 conservative and liberal \u2014 on broadcast radio.\u201d The FCC also oversees radio station licenses.<\/p>\n \u201cThe danger is that the government will simply decide which perspectives to regulate and which to leave undisturbed,\u201d ABC said.<\/p>\n On April 28, Carr called for a review of Disney\u2019s broadcast licenses, including for the Houston station and KABC-TV in Los Angeles, two years before any of them were set to expire. The FCC said the review was part of the agency\u2019s year-old inquiry into Disney\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion policies and whether they violated federal anti-discrimination rules.<\/p>\n In its Thursday petition, ABC said it had fully complied with the FCC\u2019s request for documents related to its diversity and hiring<\/a>. <\/p>\n The company has produced more than 11,000 pages of documents to comply with the request, Disney said.<\/p>\n The same week that Disney sent documents to the FCC, Kimmel made a joke on his show about Melania Trump<\/a>, comparing her glow to that of \u201can expectant widow.\u201d On April 25, a gunman tried to breach security<\/a> at the Washington Hilton, where the first couple were on stage for the White House Correspondents\u2019 Assn. Dinner. Shots were fired outside the ballroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n Three days later, the FCC announced it was requiring early license renewal applications for the Disney-owned stations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walt Disney Co.\u2019s ABC is forcefully resisting Federal Communications Commission efforts to soften the network\u2019s programming, accusing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2086,49,48,7966,3494,243310,75,46418,18028,1138,200551,6676,243309,12395,1188,243308,87,348,14213],"class_list":["post-657232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-abc","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-commission","tag-disney","tag-early-review","tag-entertainment","tag-exemption","tag-fcc","tag-fight","tag-filing","tag-free-speech","tag-houston-television-station","tag-last-week","tag-network","tag-political-candidate","tag-president-trump","tag-tv","tag-view"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Protests](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778292310_114_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n