ABC gets tough with Trump’s FCC over The View after caving on Jimmy Kimmel – UK Times

ABC has pushed back at the FCC over their investigation into The View, arguing that the agency is attempting to “chill critical protected speech.”

The move comes weeks after the FCC told ABC it must renew its broadcast licenses amid the fallout of Jimmy Kimmel’s controversial joke about Melania Trump.

It suggests that ABC is more prepared to fight FCC interference than they were last September, when Kimmel was taken off the air for nearly a week after he made comments about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Earlier this year, the FCC began investigating The View after the agency’s Trump-appointed chairman Brendan Carr alleged that the talk show had violated the “equal time rule” governing airtime for political candidates by interviewing James Talarico, a Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas.

In a newly filed response to that investigation, lawyers for ABC and their Texas affiliate KTRK wrote that the FCC’s actions are “counterproductive to the Commission’s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion.”

In the filing, ABC argue that The View is exempt from the “equal time rule” as it is a “bona fide news interview program.” It states that: “The Commission’s actions threaten to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly.”

ABC’s decision to push back against the FCC has been backed up by free speech advocates. In a statement to The Independent, Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation said: “We commend ABC for standing up for itself and the First Amendment. The legal theories the FCC asserts against broadcast licensees are frivolous and unconstitutional, and FCC Chair Brendan Carr knows it, but he hopes broadcast licensees will nonetheless self-censor rather than pick a fight.”

Similarly, Jessica J. González of advocacy group Free Press said: “I’m pleased that ABC has finally learned that bullies don’t stop when companies cower in a corner. The FCC chairman has blatantly and repeatedly abused his power to silence speech that displeases Trump. This doesn’t just violate the First Amendment rights of broadcasters on the receiving end of Brendan Carr’s tactics; it also harms the broadcasters’ audiences.

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“Chairman Carr’s overreach is startling and unpopular across the political spectrum. After Donald and Melania Trump demanded that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel for making a joke they didn’t like, Carr announced that he would conduct an early review of ABC’s broadcast licenses — an abuse of power that Senator Ted Cruz and people of all political stripes condemned,” González said.

“I urge ABC and its parent company Disney to continue fighting for free speech. Doing anything less deprives audiences of the diversity of viewpoints that are critical to the health of a democracy.”

ABC’s broadcast licenses were not due to expire until 2028. An FCC filing indicated that the early renewal request is related to a previous investigation into the company’s DEI practices.

However, the decision came shortly after the FCC received a complaint against late night host Kimmel following his joke suggesting that the First Lady had the glow of an “expectant widow.” Days after the sketch aired, a gunman attempted to storm Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Last year, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was taken off the air after Carr threatened to discipline Kimmel if ABC did not act first. ABC pulled Kimmel’s show after he suggested Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was “MAGA.” Officials have said Robinson subscribed to “leftist” ideology.

When ABC suspended Kimmel’s show, it caused an uproar among celebrities, politicians and others who saw it as a violation of free speech.