Escalation: ABC accuses FCC of First Amendment violations

ABC filed its formal reply with the FCC, reiterating that the agency’s investigation of The View threatens editorial independence and violates the First Amendment. The filing said, “The First Amendment does not permit the government to sit in an editor’s chair.”

The network argued the Commission compelled it to file the petition and pointed to a 2002 FCC ruling that treated The View as a bona fide news program. The filing also noted more than 77,000 public comments have been submitted, with the majority backing ABC.

ABC accused the FCC of singling out daytime and late‑night television while leaving talk radio untouched, and said the agency is trying to graft on new tests beyond the Commission’s settled three‑factor bona‑fide‑news framework. It identified the novel factors it rejects—hosts’ opinions, the show’s news/entertainment ratio and whether interviewers hold formal journalistic credentials—and warned those tests would force the government to grade speech by viewpoint.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources