Is a live, one-hour talk show created by legendary journalist Barbara Walters and
television producer William Geddie a bona fide news program broadcasting under an exemption from equal time considerations granted to the program more than two decades ago?
For some, ABC’s chat offering known as “The View” doesn’t fit that qualification. The Walt Disney Co. owned network steadfastly stands by its beliefs “The View” is a news program, and pled its case to the Commission in a Petition for Declaratory Ruling getting the support of Democratic Commissioner Anna M. Gómez.
The “PDR” comes courtesy of ABC and its KTRK-13 in Houston, one of the ABC Owned Stations that face an early license renewal over concerns pertaining to what Chairman Brendan Carr has termed “invidious” forms of diversity, equity and inclusion-based discrimination.
Submitted on behalf of ABC and KTRK by Jennifer Tatel at Wilkinson Barker Knauer and Paul Clement at Clement & Murphy PLLC, the Disney unit states the case that ABC is committed to full compliance with the Communications Act and the Commission’s rules. Likewise, the network and the ABC Owned Stations are likewise committed to serving the public interest “by bringing impactful and engaging news and entertainment programming to the communities it serves.”
That is why ABC sought—and received—a formal determination from the Commission that “The View” is a bona fide news interview program nearly 25 years ago, Tatel and Clement argue on Disney’s behalf.
Even if it had not done so, however, “The View currently qualifies as a bona fide news interview program because it manifestly meets every one of the three factors the Commission and Congress established.”
How so?
“The View, and other shows like it, support the public interest, as Congress envisioned
when it adopted the bona fide news exemptions,” Disney’s legal counsel state. “This goal—giving the public the broadest access to news about political races by permitting broadcasters to cover political news without fear of sanction—is especially critical today. As the 2026 election approaches, the American people need more access to political news and more exposure to political candidates, not less.”
It is therefore imperative, as ABC and Disney see it, that the Commissioners “act quickly to assure broadcasters that it will uphold its long-established standards protecting broadcasters’ good faith news judgment in including political candidates in bona fide news programming.”
To do anything else—on the eve of an election cycle—”would compound the uncertainty and resulting First Amendment chill that the Commission’s recent actions have engendered.”
This explains why ABC “respectfully requests that the Commission expeditiously affirm that The View continues to qualify for the bona fide news interview exemption under Section 315(a) of its rules.
Beginning its plea, the legal counsel call the Commission’s order to file the PDR “unprecedented,” nevermind their belief it is “beyond the Commission’s authority, and counterproductive to the Commission’s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion.”
Furthermore, the ABC and Disney attorneys believe 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.”
Addressing those who believe The View is a biased fountain of politically focused discourse, ABC and Disney respond.
“Some may dislike certain—or even most—of the viewpoints expressed on The View or
similar shows,” Tatel and Clement state. “Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views. The government does not get to decide ‘what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.’”
And, there is the argument that if the government is allowed to discriminate on the basis of
viewpoint in a Republican administration, there is little preventing it from doing so when the Democrats are in charge, they add.
The PDR was welcomed by Gómez, the lone Democrat on the Commission who since last year has been on a First Amendment crusade that saw her travel the nation to speak out against the Carr Commission and the Trump Administration for efforts she contends amount to censorship.
The days of the FCC as a paper tiger are numbered.
What the public will remember is who complied in advance and who fought back.
I’m glad Disney is choosing courage over capitulation. https://t.co/4jQa1WKwok
— Anna M. Gomez (@AGomezFCC) May 8, 2026
To read the Petition for Declaratory Ruling in full, please click here.
