ABC doubled down on its defense of "The View" against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Monday as the agency continues to probe the daytime talk show.The Disney-owned station filed new comments on a petition it initially sent to the FCC in May to have the show be declared a "bona fide" news program.In the months since, the petition has garnered over 77,000 comments defending the show out of concern for government interference."The commenters are right to be concerned," the comments read.
"The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor’s chair.Yet that is the seat the Commission now proposes to take—deciding which broadcast programs qualify as legitimate news and, for those it finds wanting, compelling them to surrender their airtime to guests they never chose to feature."FCC LAUNCHING PROBE INTO ABC'S 'THE VIEW' AMID CRACKDOWN ON EQUAL TIME FOR CANDIDATESABC defended "The View" as a "bona fide" news program as it faces an investigation from the Federal Communications Commission.
(Lou Rocco/Getty Images)It continued, "Today, the program in the Commission’s sights is 'The View.' The principle in the balance is far larger: whether a federal regulator may override a broadcaster’s editorial judgment about whom to interview—a judgment the Constitution commits to broadcasters and their audiences, not to the state."ABC also asserted that the FCC previously recognized "The View" as a "bona fide" news program in 2002 and that the agency's animosity towards the show is due to President Donald Trump."What has changed is not the program but the political climate around it.The Commission has trained its attention on daytime and late-night television—programs perceived as unfriendly to the current administration—while leaving untouched the vast landscape of talk radio, where candidates routinely appear without their opponents.
A rule pressed against one set of speakers and quietly suspended for another, along lines that track t...