The Walt Disney Company has reaffirmed its belief that its daytime talk show “The View” qualifies for a waiver to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “equal time” rules, with the entertainment giant saying the program is similar in nature to news programs aired by its stations and others.
In a reply brief filed with the agency this week, Disney said the FCC should confirm that “The View” remains exempt from the Communications Act’s equal time requirements for political candidates under the same longstanding precedent that has applied to news interview programs for decades.
The filing comes in response to petitions and public comments challenging whether the daytime program should continue to receive the exemption, with critics arguing that “The View” is primarily an entertainment program rather than a traditional news or public affairs broadcast.
The FCC is currently probing a Disney-owned TV station, KTRK (Channel 13, ABC), for apparent violations of its equal time rules because the station did not disclose a February interview with Texas Representative James Talarico, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, in its public inspection file.
Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner at the FCC, said the scandal is of the agency’s own making: After Talarico’s appearance, officials with the FCC’s Media Bureau encouraged independently-owned ABC affiliates throughout Texas to make late disclosure notices in their public inspection files, and offered the outlets amnesty for doing so. But the agency never offered the same opportunity to KTRK or Disney, then used the lack of a notice against the station, Gomez contends.
For its part, attorneys representing Disney and its broadcast network ABC are not asking the FCC to eliminate its equal rime rule, but simply to affirm The View as a news program under long-held precedent.
“ABC did not come to the Federal Communications Commission asking for anything,” the attorneys wrote in documents reviewed by The Desk. “Rather, it seeks confirmation that, consistent with decades-old precedent, ‘The View’ continues to qualify for the bona fide news interview exemption under Section 315(a).”
The company argued the proceeding extends beyond one television program and instead raises fundamental questions about the government’s role in determining editorial content.
“The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor’s chair,” the filing states. “Yet that is the seat the Commission now proposes to take.”
ABC maintained that “The View” continues to meet the FCC’s historical standards because it is regularly scheduled, remains under the broadcaster’s editorial control and selects guests based on newsworthiness. The attorneys argued the program has long interviewed presidents, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and other public officials, even as its format has combined political discussions with entertainment and cultural topics.
The filing pushes back against arguments advanced by conservative organizations, including the Center for American Rights, which contend that “The View” should not receive the same regulatory treatment as traditional Sunday morning public affairs programs such as CBS’ “Face the Nation” or NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Attorneys for Disney and ABC also say the FCC, under Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr, have subjected broadcast TV outlets to an intense level of scrutiny while leaving other media formats, like AM talk radio, largely untouched. Like broadcast TV stations, AM and FM radio stations rely on licenses issued by the FCC, and their activities are regulated by the agency.
In a statement on Tuesday, Gomez said ABC was “right on this one,” warning that allowing government officials to determine what is newsworthy or which guests broadcasters should feature has the likelihood to create a chilling effect that silences otherwise protected speech and activities.
To some degree, this has already played out: According to an analysis of ABC broadcasts by the newsletter Semafor, The View has already pulled back on booking candidates for political offices, though it hasn’t shied away from having politicians appear on its program entirely.
In late June, Vice President J.D. Vance appeared on The View to promote an upcoming faith-based memoir.
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