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ABC is continuing to fight back forcefully against efforts by federal regulators to reopen the question of whether its popular talk show \u201cThe View\u201d is subject to equal time rules. <\/p>\n
The network, which has accused the Trump administration of trying to chill free speech<\/a> in the escalating dispute, argued in a new filing to the Federal Communications Commission, made public Tuesday, that the issue had been resolved by the commission itself more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n The latest ABC filing was required as part of the FCC review process. It consisted of \u201creply comments\u201d to the commission in support of the network’s petition for a declaratory ruling that \u201cThe View\u201d \u2014 the long-running morning show that combines entertainment and political interviews and often features commentary critical of President Donald Trump \u2014 is a bona fide news program. <\/p>\n ABC cited a 2002 FCC decision qualifying \u201cThe View\u201d as such, which would mean it’s exempt from equal time rules. Those rules require granting equal airtime to competing candidates for office. <\/p>\n In a May filing, ABC similarly accused the Trump administration of trying to chill its constitutionally protected free speech and hinder open political discussion by reopening the question about \u201cThe View.\u201d <\/p>\n The dispute over \u2018The View\u2019 has broader implications<\/p>\n It was the latest volley in a broader dispute inside and outside the legal arena between the U.S. media and the Trump White House over what journalists perceive as the president\u2019s attack on free speech and the media\u2019s ability to do its job. Trump has been critical of media outlets whose journalism runs counter to his agenda. <\/p>\n His FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has indicated he intends to argue that \u201cThe View\u201d is not a so-called bona fide news program. The issue could affect other shows that similarly combine entertainment and politics.<\/p>\n After the May filing, the FCC opened a public comment period<\/a> on the issue, as part of the review process. ABC pointed out in its filing Tuesday that more than 77,000 comments have been submitted by the public,<\/a> with \u201can undeniable majority\u201d of the messages supporting \u201cThe View\u201d and free speech. <\/p>\n \u201cThe commenters are right to be concerned,\u201d the new filing argued. \u201cThe First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor\u2019s chair. Yet that is the seat the Commission now proposes to take … deciding which broadcast programs qualify as legitimate news and, for those it finds wanting, compelling them to surrender their airtime to guests they never chose to feature.\u201d<\/p>\n It said the dispute over \u201cThe View\u201d touches on a march larger principle: \u201cwhether a federal regulator may override a broadcaster\u2019s editorial judgment about whom to interview \u2014 a judgment the Constitution commits to broadcasters and their audiences, not to the state.\u201d<\/p>\n ABC also argued that \u201cnothing about \u2018The View\u2019 that the law cares about has changed since the Commission last answered that question more than two decades ago. … What has changed is not the program but the political climate around it.\u201d<\/p>\n It contended that Carr’s FCC had chosen to focus its attention on daytime and late-night shows \u201cperceived as unfriendly to the current administration \u2014 while leaving untouched the vast landscape of talk radio, where candidates routinely appear without their opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n That, it said, \u201cis not evenhanded regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n FCC suggests ABC is misleading its public<\/p>\n An FCC spokesperson responded, in an email to The Associated Press, with a suggestion that ABC was misleading its public.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile ABC insists that \u2018The View\u2019 is a \u2018bona fide news program\u2019 under the law,\u201d the spokesperson said, “ABC should focus on complying with its public interest obligations, rather than misleading the public about them.\u201d<\/p>\n