ABC has accused the Federal Communications Commission of violating its free speech rights, potentially setting the stage for a protracted, high-stakes legal battle between the network and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The company said in a filing with the agency that regulators had a \u201cchilling effect\u201d on free speech by trying to punish political content they disagreed with. The filing, made public on Friday<\/a>, is the most aggressive defense from any television network since President Trump kicked off an extended campaign last year to bring media organizations to heel.<\/p>\n It represented a striking departure for ABC. The network, under the corporate stewardship of the Walt Disney Company, set an early tone of compliance toward Mr. Trump when it settled<\/a> a defamation lawsuit with him for $15 million in December 2024. Many legal experts considered Mr. Trump\u2019s case unlikely to succeed in court.<\/p>\n The filing was registered on behalf of a single ABC station in Houston and involved a minor regulatory dispute over the talk show \u201cThe View.\u201d But in a signal of its importance, the company\u2019s paperwork was signed by one of the most experienced Supreme Court litigators in the country, Paul D. Clement<\/a>, a solicitor general under President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n The filing responded to action the F.C.C. took earlier this year questioning whether \u201cThe View,\u201d the longtime ABC morning talk show, fell under old federal rules requiring entertainment programs on broadcast television to grant equal airtime to political candidates for the same office. The show features a mix of political and celebrity interviews, led by a panel of hosts who are often highly critical of Mr. Trump.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump\u2019s appointed chair of the commission, Brendan Carr, has strongly<\/a> suggested in public that \u201cThe View,\u201d which is technically part of ABC\u2019s news division, should not qualify for an exemption that the equal time rules allow for so-called \u201cbona fide\u201d news programs. But the filing from ABC revealed for the first time the intensity of the agency\u2019s efforts against the network, which have included extensive requests for documents and information about its operations and editorial approach.<\/p>\n Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, during a congressional hearing in January.Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times<\/p>\n The exemption has been extended to many talk shows over the years. But Mr. Carr offered a new interpretation of the rule in January<\/a>, suggesting that too many talk shows improperly thought they qualified for it and directing them to assume the opposite.<\/p>\n The end result of that guidance, if it withstands challenge, could have sweeping implications for the national political debate on network television approaching the midterms.<\/p>\n The lone Democrat on the F.C.C., Anna M. Gomez, and public interest legal groups, have warned that the agency\u2019s change could discourage entertainment-oriented talk shows \u2014 political theaters in their own rights for decades now \u2014 from booking political guests altogether. As ABC\u2019s lawyers noted, the California primary has some 60 candidates competing in its open June primary for governor. Under the rule, if \u201cThe View\u201d were to book one of them, it would need to offer to book all the rest or offer them the same amount of time on all local ABC stations in the state.<\/p>\n The F.C.C. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n According to ABC\u2019s filing, the F.C.C. ordered the company\u2019s station in Houston, KTRK-TV, to file a formal request asking whether \u201cThe View\u201d qualified for the exemption. The agency suggested that if the show was not exempt, then KTRK should have registered formal paperwork required under the equal time rules in February when \u201cThe View\u201d booked James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas.<\/p>\n James Talarico, center, was interviewed on \u201cThe View\u201d in February. Mr. Talarico is the Democratic nominee in the Texas Senate race.Credit…ABC<\/p>\n ABC said the request was an overreach because \u201cThe View\u201d had already received its own news exemption from the agency in 2002. The company said the exemption had never been challenged in the 24 years since and considered it to remain in effect.<\/p>\n The network called the F.C.C.\u2019s demand that it file for an exemption again \u201cunprecedented, beyond the commission\u2019s authority and counterproductive to the commission\u2019s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n It added: \u201cSome may dislike certain \u2014 or even most \u2014 of the viewpoints expressed on \u2018The View\u2019 or similar shows. Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views.\u201d<\/p>\n Pointedly, it noted that the agency has questioned talk shows critical of the president, like \u201cThe View,\u201d but not radio talk shows supportive of the administration, like those by the conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Mark Levin. The filing also noted the timing of the inquiries, which come ahead of the midterm elections.<\/p>\n Mr. Carr assumed the agency chairmanship in 2025, vowing to<\/a> enforce century-old \u201cpublic interest standards\u201d that include provisions like the equal time rule after a prolonged period of leniency that began in the Reagan era.<\/p>\n Those rules apply to broadcast television and radio, much less so to cable, and not at all to the internet. Mr. Carr has accused the nation\u2019s three oldest networks \u2014 ABC, NBC and CBS \u2014 of exhibiting liberal bias that could be in violation of the public interest standards, drawing sharp pushback from public interest lawyers, Democrats and even some Republicans.<\/p>\n ABC has taken the brunt of the action. Early in his term, Mr. Carr initiated an inquiry<\/a> into diversity, equity and inclusion practices at ABC stations, which remains underway.<\/p>\n In September, Mr. Carr threatened possible sanctions against the network over a joke that the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel made about the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. Mr. Kimmel\u2019s comments prompted fury from Mr. Trump and his supporters. ABC responded by suspending Mr. Kimmel\u2019s show for several days, but he returned after a wave of protest from his fans and others concerned about the free speech implication of taking him off the air.<\/p>\n The pressure has only intensified since. The F.C.C. began looking into \u201cThe View,\u201d and then, two weeks ago, took the highly unusual step of reviewing the licenses of all eight of ABC\u2019s owned local stations years before they expire.<\/p>\n That license review came after another joke from Mr. Kimmel that angered the president, though Mr. Carr said<\/a> it was because ABC had been playing \u201crope-a-dope\u201d with the agency in the D.E.I. inquiry and \u201cweren\u2019t being entirely forthcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n ABC disputed Mr. Carr\u2019s description of events in its filing this week. The company said it had fully complied with all agency demands in the inquiry, on schedule, supplying some 11,000 documents in response to scores of requests.<\/p>\n The paperwork, however, suggested that ABC was considering a broader court challenge to the longstanding rules, asserting that they were outdated and unfair given the many media options now available, most of them free of any such public interest obligations.<\/p>\n