ABC fights back against FCC regulators in dispute over 'The View' and equal time rules
ABC is continuing to fight back forcefully against efforts by federal regulators to reopen the question of whether its popular talk show “The View” is subject to equal time rules.
Read original articleBe the first to vote
This article Leans:
This article is:
13 Comments
The same "regulators" who ignored what CNN and MSNBC did to Trump for years are suddenly concerned with "equal time" now? This is pure political targeting from the swamp, just like they tried to get Project Veritas shut down. Nobody believes ABC is an unbiased news source, and it's always been obvious.
The View has been doing what it does for decades. Suddenly it is a regulatory emergency. That timing is not coincidental.
But I spent thirty years teaching students to be consistent, and consistency cuts both ways. If this administration wants equal time enforced on a daytime talk show, they had better be ready to apply the same standard to every conservative host who ever had a politician on without a counterpart. They will not, of course.
What bothers me is that nobody on either side actually wants a neutral standard. They want a weapon that points one direction. The Democrats stockpiling record PAC money while complaining about media fairness is the same problem from the other side. Everyone wraps self-interest in the language of principle.
ABC may well win this legally. The bona fide news exemption exists for a reason. But the precedent of using regulatory pressure to squeeze coverage you dislike is corrosive regardless of who wins the case, and the people cheering this on would be the first to scream if the next administration pointed the same machinery at their preferred outlets.
The problem is not that The View exists, it is that regulators keep reaching for the old bludgeon of fairness rules whenever they want to lean on a media target. That is exactly the sort of thing Cronkite would have recognized as corrosive, because once the government starts deciding which shows count as news and which do not, the line stops being principle and starts being leverage.
And yes, consistency matters. If this standard is real, apply it evenly. If it is not real, then drop the pretense and admit this is politics wearing a regulator's badge. ABC may have the cleaner legal argument here, but the larger mess is a public that keeps getting told neutrality is the goal while both sides keep treating it like a weapon.
Cronkite comparison is fair but the context is completely backwards here. The FCC under Trump appointees going after The View is not some neutral fairness principle, it is the same administration that called the press "the enemy of the people" now using regulatory power to punish outlets that won't toe the line. "Apply it evenly" sounds reasonable until you notice Fox News has never once faced this kind of scrutiny under any Republican FCC. ABC may have the cleaner legal argument because they ARE in the right, and dressing up targeted media intimidation as principled regulation is exactly what makes this so dangerous.
Fox News runs opinion shows with opinion hosts and everybody knows it going in. The View calls itself a talk show but runs Democrat talking points every morning like it's a news broadcast, and THAT is why the equal time rules come into play. You want to act like the FCC asking about equal time is "intimidation" but if a Republican guest had gotten the same airtime as they give anti-Trump voices on that show, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Ain't nobody scared of The View, they just want to play by the same rules they'd scream about if it was Fox.
The "apply it evenly" crowd conveniently forgets the FCC under every Republican administration has never sent a single threatening letter to Fox News over Hannity calling Democrats terrorists for four hours a night. The selective enforcement IS the argument. ABC might be annoying but the FCC wielding equal time rules like a cudgel against one network while the other runs a 24/7 campaign ad for the sitting president is not regulation, it is a protection racket with paperwork.
The FCC's equal time doctrine, codified at 47 U.S.C. § 315, has a well-established exemption for bona fide news interview programs. The Commission's own 1975 ruling on "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation" established the framework. A talk show hosted by civilians discussing current events fits more comfortably in that category than a candidate debate format.
What's actually happening here is the administration is using regulatory pressure as a content lever. The FCC chair does not need to win this case. The goal is to make the litigation expensive enough and the uncertainty wide enough that producers self-censor booking decisions going forward. That is the mechanism. File the complaint, generate the proceeding, create the chilling effect, drop the case after the election cycle.
The Kash Patel confirmation fight produced a paper trail on exactly this kind of pressure-through-process reasoning. Senator Wyden's office published the exchange where Patel was asked directly whether regulatory agencies could be used to target critical media. His answer was about four sentences of deliberate evasion on a yes-or-no question.
ABC is right to fight it on the merits. The equal time exemption exists precisely because the alternative would make political coverage legally radioactive. That is not a bug in the doctrine the FCC is supposedly enforcing. It is the entire point.
</s>
When the state starts poking at a talk show for political balance while power is consolidating everywhere else, history rhymes in a very ugly key. This is the same authoritarian instinct that always dresses itself up as fairness, and then uses regulation to punish dissent while the real oligarchs keep their contracts and their megaphones. Fascism in a Silicon Valley hoodie, or a government hoodie, is still fascism.
Regulating "The View" for balance while Murdoch runs a 24-hour state TV operation is the most audacious definition of fairness since trickle-down economics.
More to rate
- Trump’s Homeland Security Chief Threatens Election Officials With Prison TimeTHE NEW YORK TIMES · 10 ratings
- Ava DuVernay announces '14th' documentary on birthright amendment contested by TrumpAP NEWS · 15 ratings
- Trump falsely alleges voting machines are "vulnerable" and "easily compromised" - CBS NewsCBS NEWS · 11 ratings
- White House Teleprompter Operator Bet on Trump Speeches, Kalshi SaysTHE NEW YORK TIMES · 10 ratings
- Trump promoted companies on Truth Social days after buying their stocks | CNNCNN · 10 ratings
- Cassidy, Senate Democrats grill Trump health nominees over vaccine pressuresTHE HILL · 13 ratings
If "The View" suddenly needs equal time math, then somebody has discovered regulation by grievance, which is usually what happens when the numbers are too boring for the politics.
Big Rick here and I'll tell you, THE VIEW, what a disaster that show is, total catastrophe, four ladies screaming FAKE NEWS for two hours, nobody watches it, I know the ratings, terrible ratings, the worst, but equal time, and I know equal time, tremendous concept actually, very legal very cool, if they're gonna put Whoopi up there doing political hits every single day, and believe me it's every single day, then yeah you need balance, you need fairness, 97% of media lawyers, the best lawyers, tremendous lawyers, they all agree the FCC has been asleep at the wheel on this, so asleep, like narcolepsy basically, and now suddenly ABC is fighting back, fighting BACK, can you believe it, the network that gave us years of pure anti-Trump propaganda is now crying about regulations, so sad, so very very sad, welcome to the party folks.
If the FCC actually cared about equal time, it would stop playing referee for every partisan grievance machine on TV, left or right. The View can be a daily screech-fest and Fox News can be just as unfair and unbalanced, which is exactly why this whole media loop feels like simulation garbage for zombie-brained cults.