Key Points
- FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said a report that the agency is investigating The View is merely an intimidation tactic, not a legitimate enforcement matter.
- Fox News cited an anonymous source claiming an equal-time probe tied to a recent political interview.
- Gomez warned the FCC’s authority is being used to chill speech and target perceived critics.
A leading Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official has downplayed a media report published on Friday that claims the agency is investigating ABC’s daytime program “The View” for a violation of its “equal time” rule.
In a statement issued early Friday evening, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez — the lone Democrat at the agency — said a report published by Fox News earlier in the day was merely intended to serve as an intimidation tactic against a program that has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr in recent months.
On Friday, Fox News reporters Joseph Wulfsohn and Brian Flood said the FCC was in the process of launching a probe into an interview with James Talarico, a candidate for a seat in the Texas state senate, that aired on The View earlier in the week.
Talarico was one of the first candidates to appear on The View since Carr issued a warning to broadcasters last month that said daytime and late night talk shows would be scrutinized for their “partisan motivation” when determining whether those programs would remain eligible for a waiver of the agency’s “equal time” rules that has been offered to those shows since the mid-1990s.
The FCC has not formally announced an investigation into the broadcast, according to a search of online databases conducted Friday evening. Carr and another FCC Commissioner, Olivia Trusty, have not commented on the matter, nor have executives at ABC and its parent company Disney.
Under federal rules, candidates for political office are allowed to request an equitable amount of time on broadcast TV and radio stations when a competing candidate appears. News programs are generally exempt from the requirement, as are broadcast networks as a whole.
ABC owns eight local television stations, which are licensed by the FCC and thus regulated by the agency. More than 200 independently-owned TV stations are affiliated with ABC and are also subject to the “equal time” rule.
The report published by Fox News on Friday cited a single anonymous source who was not named but is purportedly connected to the FCC. Carr has appeared on numerous Fox News programs over the past two years and has been interviewed at least once by Fox News Digital, which operates the network’s website.
Since becoming chairman last year, Carr has frequently targeted ABC for its programming and internal policies. One of his first acts as chairman was to send a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger inquiring about ABC’s diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) programs and its relationship with the owners of its local TV affiliates.
Carr also criticized late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel for a monologue aired on his ABC program after the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk in September, during which Kimmel wrongfully implied that the suspect accused of shooting Kirk was aligned with Trump supporters. In an interview with a conservative podcaster, Carr encouraged broadcasters to pre-empt Kimmel’s show on their ABC-affiliated stations. Nexstar and Sinclair, two broadcasters with transactions pending before the FCC’s Media Bureau, pulled Kimmel’s show from their stations for nearly two weeks.
Carr has subjected NBC to a similar level of scrutiny, even before he was promoted to Chairman by Trump last year. During a Fox News segment in November 2024, Carr suggested NBC had violated the FCC’s “equal time” rules when it did not offer then-former President Trump an equal amount of time for then-candidate Trump when his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, appeared on “Saturday Night Live” days before the presidential election. E-mails obtained by The Desk proved Carr knew NBC had offered the Trump campaign broadcast time under the agency’s rules before his remarks on Fox News.
Last May, The Desk reported Carr was seeking to designate the “equal time” matter involving NBC and Saturday Night Live for a hearing, something that was ultimately put on ice after internal e-mails between Carr and Fox News producers were published by this outlet. Likewise, on Friday, Gomez said the Fox News story about the interviewed aired on The View would likely not materialize into a full-fledged probe, and implied the story was planted with the news outlet merely to scare ABC.
“The real purpose is to weaponize the FCC’s regulatory authority to intimidate perceived critics of this Administration and chill protected speech,” Gomez said. “That is not how a free society operates.”
Gomez continued: “The First Amendment protects the right of daytime and late-night programs to cover newsworthy issues and express viewpoints without government interference. I urge broadcasters and their parent networks to stand strong against these unfounded attacks, and continue exercising their constitutional rights without fear or favor.”
