ABC says Trump’s FCC is threatening free speech in ‘The View’ probe

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — ABC is accusing the Trump administration’s media regulator of threatening broadcasters’ First Amendment rights.

In an extraordinary legal letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the network accuses the agency of threatening “to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.”

At issue, specifically, is “The View,” ABC’s daytime talk show that has become a popular destination for politicians, particularly Democrats.

But ABC’s letter to the FCC, signed by prominent conservative attorney and Supreme Court litigator Paul Clement, says the government is posing a broader threat to free speech and political discussion.

“Uncertainty as to the scope of broadcast licensees’ editorial discretion threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come,” Clement wrote.

“As the 2026 midterm election approaches, the American people need more access to political news and more exposure to political candidates, not less,” he added.

The New York Times, which was the first to report on the legal letter, called it “the most aggressive posture taken yet by a television network toward the Trump administration.”

FCC chairman Brendan Carr had no immediate response to the ABC filing.

‘The View’ under FCC scrutiny

The legal letter was filed in response to the FCC’s highly unusual decision to open an inquiry into “The View” earlier this year.

However, there’s more to the timing. It was submitted about a week after the FCC called up all eight of ABC’s station licenses for an early renewal process.

The agency’s order — in effect challenging the stations and subjecting them to a lengthy legal process — was widely seen as a form of government retaliation.

Carr, who has moved in lockstep with President Trump during Trump’s second term, claimed the license challenge was part of an ongoing FCC probe into diversity initiatives at ABC’s parent company Disney.

But the order came just one day after Trump pressed ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and ABC signaled that it would not do so. Kimmel’s show remains on the air, as does “The View,” another show Trump dislikes and often publicly criticizes.

The government’s examination of “The View” centers on the “equal time” rule that previous FCC chairs have downplayed.

The rule requires stations to give equal airtime to all legally qualified candidates for public office — if one is featured, his or her rivals have to be given time, too.

But there are big exemptions for news coverage, with news defined broadly. In 2002, Clement’s letter points out, the FCC gave ABC a ruling that “The View” qualifies as “a bona fide news interview program” and is thus exempt from “equal time” concerns.

Carr has sought to challenge how those exemptions apply to daytime and late-night talk shows — categories that include some of Trump’s most frequent on-air critics. “Obviously, questions have been raised about whether they are, in fact, bona fide news,” he said on a podcast last month.

In February, the FCC sent KTRK, an ABC-owned station in Houston, a letter scrutinizing Texas Senate candidate James Talarico’s primary-season appearance on “The View,” and followed up in March with demands.

Clement’s letter argues that the FCC has overstepped its authority and has had “harmful effects on free speech.”

He says the FCC should affirm that the talk show does still qualify for the “equal time” exemption to avoid further harm.

“Some may dislike certain — or even most — of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows. Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views,” the letter stated.

Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner at the FCC, cheered Disney for taking the stand on Friday.

“The days of the FCC as a paper tiger are numbered,” she wrote on X. “What the public will remember is who complied in advance and who fought back. I’m glad Disney is choosing courage over capitulation.”

The license pressure campaign

Clement’s letter also suggests, though it doesn’t say outright, that the early-renewal order timing is suspicious.

The eight station licenses were not due for renewal until 2028 at the earliest.

“Disney, as part of the filing, is going to have to come in and demonstrate that they’ve been operating in the public interest,” Carr said at a news conference last month.

He insisted that the order was part of a natural progression of his Disney DEI probe, something he has touted in appearances on pro-Trump media outlets.

Clement’s letter points out that Disney “produced over 6,200 pages of documents” for the FCC’s probe last fall, and then didn’t hear back from the government for five months.

Once the FCC finally asked for more information, Disney provided “an additional 4,839 pages of documents.” And just one week later, Clement’s letter says, the FCC challenged ABC’s licenses.

Normally, if the agency thought Disney’s responses were insufficient, they would call up the company’s lawyers or send a formal notice, a longtime media lawyer said on condition of anonymity.

Sending an early-renewal order for Disney’s licenses made no sense in that context. “If you’re really interested in DEI, you’re not going to learn anything from that renewal application,” the lawyer said.

License challenges are extremely rare and usually reserved for cases of “egregious, regular misconduct, like fraud,” the lawyer added.

Clement’s letter called the early-renewal demand “extraordinary” and argued that the FCC’s abrupt changes to “long-established policy” require action by the full commission, which includes Gomez, “and the oversight of the courts.”

ABC’s license renewal process is expected to drag on for months if not years.

Once ABC files the necessary paperwork, “then anyone can file petitions to deny,” Carr said. This means right-wing groups can submit complaints about Kimmel, “The View” and anything else.

The likely result: A long, drawn-out administrative proceeding where Disney will have to defend itself.

In that sense, Clement’s letter may be viewed as an attempt to go on offense against the FCC.

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