ABC Station Challenges FCC Investigation Into The View

Lawyers for KTRK-TV, a Houston-based local television station owned by ABC, filed a legal motion on Thursday contesting an ongoing Federal Communications Commission investigation into the talk show The View. The motion states that the investigation threatens to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech both with respect to The View and more broadly.

The station maintains that The View qualifies for an exemption to equal time rules because it operates as a bonafide news interview program. In February the FCC chair confirmed the agency had opened an enforcement action into ABC over the show. The probe examines whether the program violated equal time rules by featuring a U.S. Senate candidate from Texas without affording the same platform to his campaign rivals.

The station's filing argues that The View's exemption remains valid. It adds that the constitutional infirmities in the equal time doctrine are even more pronounced today when broadcast airwaves represent only a slice of the media options through which Americans receive political information.

The motion states that while candidates can connect with voters on cable, podcasts and social media, specifically requiring broadcast airtime for all qualified candidates does not expand speech. It instead makes coverage infeasible which ultimately reduces it.

The station accused the FCC of punishing ABC and The View for political purposes. The filing notes that the show often features liberal guests though it has long included at least one conservative voice. It also argues that conservative programs have unfairly been given a pass.

"Some may dislike certain – or even most – of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows," the station's lawyers argued. " — KTRK-TV legal filing (The Guardian) ABC's parent company Disney is also facing a separate investigation into its diversity, equity and inclusion practices that began last year.

Last week the FCC chair cited findings from that investigation as the basis for ordering ABC to apply early to renew its eight local station licenses which were not originally scheduled for renewal until 2028 at the earliest and 2031 at the latest. On Thursday a group of prominent Senate Democrats sent the FCC chair a letter urging him to rescind the order.

The lone Democrat-appointed FCC commissioner praised ABC's response to the equal time investigation in a post on X stating the days of the FCC as a paper tiger are numbered.