ABC slams Brendan Carr in latest FCC filing
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Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
ABC said Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr's assertion that its awareness campaign around the agency's probe of "The View" is misinformation and "understates the depth of the commenters' commitment to bedrock First Amendment principles."
Why it matters: The comments suggest Carr is committed to politics over the public's consensus on the issue.
- "The public's robust response during the comment period represents laudable civic engagement of the kind the Commission should welcome given its statutory obligation to make decisions based on the public interest," the network's lawyers said in public comments filed to the FCC on Monday.
State of play: The filing, which is required by the FCC as part of its review process, challenges the agency's decision to reconsider whether daytime talk show "The View" qualifies for a key legal exemption that allows news programs to bypass legal requirements to give candidates equal air time.
- Carr argues "The View" shouldn't be exempt from rules that require "bona fide news programs" to allot equal air time for political candidates.
- ABC has said the FCC'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."
Zoom in: ABC's filing noted that the overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of public comments filed on the issue urge the FCC to respect the broadcaster's editorial independence.
- "[T]o the extent ABC's call for public comment during the Commission's official public comment period prompted some commentators to voice their views, there is nothing 'misleading' about alerting the public that the proceeding could impinge on a broadcaster's editorial discretion over who appears on its programming," it said.
- "That is simply an accurate description of the power the Commission proposes to claim for itself."
Zoom out: ABC's aggressive defense against the FCC is a notable departure from its previous move to acquiesce to political pressure, but the network has more legal leverage now.
- The Trump administration's legal track record against media companies has gotten significantly worse since 2024, when ABC settled a lawsuit with the president that legal experts say it could've easily won.
What to watch: The FCC has simultaneously ordered an accelerated review of ABC's local station broadcast licenses as it investigates whether those stations violated rules that are meant to prevent "unlawful discrimination" related to ABC's diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
- The agency has launched investigations into multiple broadcasters for their DEI practices, including NBC and CBS.
- The FCC's lone Democratic commissioner Anna Gomez said it's "so clear that this early license renewal is being done to pressure Disney" and that "This is all designed to pressure Disney to cave."
