ABC fired back against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in a petition filed on Thursday regarding the agency's ongoing probe against "The View."
"'The View' has been broadcasting under a bona fide news exemption granted to it more than twenty years ago... The Commission has taken no action over the last two decades to modify or overturn the Declaratory Ruling and there is no basis for doing so now," ABC said in the filing.
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The Disney-owned network said the FCC's public notice from January announcing enforcement of a rule allotting equal time for candidates "has a chilling effect on First Amendment-protected free speech on the eve of the 2026 elections."
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"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 said.
The network previously sought to classify "The View" as bona fide news in 2002 and the notion was not disputed until 2026.
ABC also combated assertions that it was aiding Texas Democratic hopeful James Talarico, whose February appearance on "The View" triggered the probe, stating in the filing, "The decision to include Talarico was driven by considerations of newsworthiness and audience interest and not an intent to advance his candidacy."
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A government source told Fox News Digital that Disney's statement was "absurd on its face."
"Ron Burgundy has a stronger claim of being 'bona fide news' than Whoopi Goldberg," the source said, referring to the iconic Will Ferrell character from "Anchorman."
The FCC declined a request for comment.
In January, the FCC announced it would require the broadcast networks to adhere to the "statutory equal opportunities requirement," citing the Communications Act of 1934, "including their airing of late-night and daytime talk shows."
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Talarico, who has since won the Democratic primary in the Texas Senate race, was among the first political candidates to appear on "The View" since the FCC announced its crackdown.
There has been a longstanding "bona fide" exception for news programming that wouldn't require equal time for an opposing candidate, but the FCC now says it "has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late-night or daytime television talk show program on the air presently would qualify for the 'bona fide' news exemption."
ABC's parent company, Disney, never made an equal-time filing to the FCC regarding Talarico's appearance, which would implicitly indicate to the FCC that Disney believes "The View" is bona fide news and would be exempt from the policy.