The Federal Communications Commission is reportedly investigating ABC’s The View in what FCC Democrat Anna Gomez called an attempt to intimidate critics of the Trump administration.
“Let’s be clear on what this is. This is government intimidation, not a legitimate investigation,” Gomez said in a statement Friday night. “Like many other so-called ‘investigations’ before it, the FCC will announce an investigation but never carry one out, reach a conclusion, or take any meaningful action. The real purpose is to weaponize the FCC’s regulatory authority to intimidate perceived critics of this administration and chill protected speech.”
The FCC hasn’t announced the investigation but previously gave several indications that it would occur sooner or later. After pressuring ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in September that it would be “worthwhile to have the FCC look into whether The View and some of these other programs” are violating the agency’s equal-time rule. The Carr FCC followed that up in January by issuing a warning to late-night and daytime talk shows that they may no longer qualify for the bona fide news exemption to the equal-time rule.
Fox News reported Friday that the FCC is launching an investigation into The View “amid the agency’s crackdown on equal time for political candidates.” A source at the FCC told Fox that the probe was triggered by the show’s interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico.
“Fake news is not getting a free pass anymore,” Fox News quoted its FCC source as saying. Fox said its source indicated that ABC would have to provide “equal airtime for Republican candidates on the ballot like incumbent Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn and his primary rivals,” and for “Ahmad Hassan, the little-known candidate running against Talarico and [US Rep. Jasmine] Crockett in the Democratic primary.”
President Trump posted a link to the Fox News story on his Truth Social account. The investigation was also confirmed by Reuters, which reported on Saturday that a source said the FCC opened a probe into whether the “daytime talk show violated equal time rules for interviews with political candidates after an appearance by a Democratic Texas Senate candidate.”