The president has long used harsh rhetorical attacks against such companies as CNN and The New York Times<\/a>, as well as individual journalists, and filed a flurry of lawsuits against them. He\u2019s even accused the press of “seditious” conduct. I suppose we\u2019ve grown accustomed to that.<\/p>\n But there is a whole new level of escalation that goes beyond intimidation. Trump and his allies are pushing the regulatory levers to force networks to spend enormous time and money to preserve their franchise.<\/p>\n And the biggest target right now is ABC.<\/p>\n TUNING OUT: WHY MANY AMERICANS ARE SICK OF THE NEWS \u2013 ESPECIALLY TRUMP NEWS<\/a><\/p>\n President Trump stands with FCC Chair Brendan Carr as the chair warns news organizations to correct course or risk losing licenses. (Celal Gunes\/Anadolu\/Getty Images Al Drago\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who along with Trump has demanded Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>\u2019s firing, has launched a review of the local station licenses connected to the Disney-owned company. This legal war will drag on for years and is unlikely to succeed; only one license has ever been pulled, and that was a half-century ago.<\/p>\n Think about it. Why should an ABC-owned station in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles have its license jeopardized because a federal agency dislikes the network\u2019s content?<\/p>\n Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel addresses a new FCC threat during his show on Jan. 21, 2026. (JimmyKimmelLive\/ABC)<\/p>\n ABC has produced 11,000 documents in the inquiry so far, which gives you an idea of the scope of the showdown.<\/p>\n FCC LAUNCHING PROBE INTO ABC’S ‘THE VIEW’ AMID CRACKDOWN ON EQUAL TIME FOR CANDIDATES<\/a><\/p>\n “The commission\u2019s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to \u2018The View<\/a>\u2019 and more broadly,” ABC said in a legal filing.<\/p>\n Yes, “The View,” the all-female talk show<\/a> founded by Barbara Walters in 1997 and syndicated by ABC. That\u2019s now a bullseye within the larger target.<\/p>\n The show has generally featured one conservative to balance the aggressively liberal Whoopi Goldberg<\/a> and Joy Behar. But these days the conservative panelists are also strongly anti-Trump.<\/p>\n REPUBLICANS VIRTUALLY SHUT OUT OF DEM-DOMINATED TALK SHOWS AS FCC AIMS TO REFORM NETWORK BIAS<\/a><\/p>\n The initial filing was based on an ABC station in Houston, KTRK, stemming from a minor dispute with “The View.” And as the New York Times points out, the station\u2019s paperwork was signed by former solicitor general Paul Clement.<\/p>\n At issue is whether the program, which is part of ABC\u2019s news division, should be exempt from equal-time rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n ABC says it has invited JD Vance<\/a>, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, Elon Musk, Kevin McCarthy and Marco Rubio, according to the Hollywood Reporter, but all have refused.<\/p>\n TEXAS-BASED ABC AFFILIATES FILE EQUAL TIME NOTICES AS FCC CRACKS DOWN ON \u2018THE VIEW\u2019 OVER TALARICO SEGMENT<\/a><\/p>\n “The View” was given an exemption as a news show back in 2002.<\/p>\n Disney also notes that the FCC hasn\u2019t gone after conservatives \u2013 or liberals \u2013 on talk radio<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen these tactics in other realms. The Trump Justice Department last fall brought an indictment against James Comey<\/a>, which was rejected by a judge. After Trump fired Pam Bondi for not getting results, the department last month brought a second, much narrower indictment against the former FBI chief despised by Trump, based solely on the posting of seashell art that said 86*47. And Comey has to hire lawyers again.<\/p>\n TRUMP, DEMOCRATS LOCKED IN ENDLESS CYCLES OF PAYBACK AFTER COMEY INDICTMENT AND TARGETING PRESIDENT’S ENEMIES<\/a><\/p>\n It so happens that the media, even most conservative legal commentators, are calling the case absurd.<\/p>\n Says National Review\u2019s<\/a> Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n “Sure, Comey plainly did not intend to threaten bodily harm. More fundamentally, though, even if Comey\u2019s state of mind had been sinister,\u00a0he\u2019d still be innocent because the seashell array was not an actionable threat\u2026<\/p>\n LINE IN THE SAND: WHY TRUMP IS DRAWING FLAK FOR THE JAMES COMEY INDICTMENT OVER SEASHELLS<\/a><\/p>\n “The case must be thrown out pretrial because \u201886 47\u2019 is not a true threat.”\u00a0<\/p>\n The Federal Communications Commission has launched a probe into ABC’s “The View” over its policy on providing equal time for political candidates, Fox News Digital has learned. (Lou Rocco\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Look, the administration has done what it can to crack\u00a0down on the press, such as booting Pentagon reporters out of<\/a> the building after they refused to submit to advance censorship.<\/p>\n And Trump has previously collected at least $16 million apiece from earlier lawsuits against CBS and ABC<\/a>.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, Trump\u2019s friend, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and his son David, who bought CBS without government<\/a> interference, may soon control CNN as well. The expectation is that they would shift the world\u2019s first 24-hour network, whose founder Ted Turner died last week, in a more Trump-friendly direction.<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/trump-carr-split.png\")
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