ABC launches campaign urging viewers to back ‘The View’ in FCC fight
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ABC launched an on-air campaign Monday urging viewers to support “The View” and its eight Disney-owned ABC affiliates in its fight with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Earlier this year, the FCC launched an investigation into ABC’s “The View” amid the agency’s crackdown on equal time for political candidates after Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico appeared on daytime chat. Disney’s ABC believes “The View” is real news and therefore exempt from the equal time rule.
ABC’s new campaign includes a petition declaring that “The View” does indeed qualify as a genuine news interview show. “‘The View’ has been hosting your favorite guests for nearly 30 years. Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to be on the show. Tell the FCC and let the viewers decide. You have until July 6,” said an ad that debuted during the show Monday.
FCC START PROBLEMS IN ABC’S ‘THE VIEW’ IF CANDIDATES GIVE EQUAL TIME
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched an investigation into ABC’s “The View” over its policy regarding networks providing equal time to political candidates. (Lou Rocco/Getty Images)
The campaign also encourages ABC News viewers to support early broadcast license renewals for eight ABC-owned stations.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in April that KFSN-TV in Fresno, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, KGO-TV in San Francisco, WLS-TV in Chicago, WABC-TV in New York, WTVD in North Carolina, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and KTRK-TV in Houston must prove they are working in the public interest as part of Disney’s ongoing focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. [DEI] applications.
The licenses of Disney-owned ABC affiliates were originally scheduled to be renewed between 2028 and 2031, but Trump’s FCC accelerated the process.
ABC ran ads in these markets saying “The FCC is questioning our commitment to viewers by threatening to take us off the air” and urged viewers to speak up and help. ABC asks viewers to submit public comments via FCC Electronic Comment Filing System submit online and enter the relevant case number along with their submission.
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ABC launched an on-air campaign Monday urging viewers to support “The View” against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (ABC)
Both campaigns will run online and across ABC social media platforms because ABC executives feel it is important for the public to know what is at stake and how to be directly involved in the process. Although the two issues are separate, the ABC insists that they both involve the same principle of freedom of expression.
The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, the FCC announced that broadcast networks would be required to comply with the “statutory equal opportunity requirement,” citing the Communications Act of 1934, “including the broadcast of late-night and daytime talk shows.”
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Disney’s campaign encourages ABC News viewers to support early broadcast license renewals for eight ABC-owned stations.
There was a long-standing “good faith” exception for news programming that did not require equal time for an opposing candidate, but the FCC now says it means “no evidence has been presented that the interview segment of any currently on the air nightly or daytime television talk show program would qualify for the ‘good faith’ news exemption.”
A spokesperson for the FCC previously told Fox News Digital: “Decades ago, Congress passed a law that generally prohibited television programs from rating one political candidate over another. Specifically, Congress put in place protections to ensure that covered programs offered equal time to legally qualified candidates (both Republican and Democrat) for office on public broadcasts.”
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“The equal time law encourages more speech and gives voters the power to decide the outcome of elections. The FCC will review Disney’s claim that ‘The View’ is a ‘bona fide news program’ and thus is exempt from political equal time rules.”
Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
