The Trump administration is said to be investigating ABC’s “The View” over allegations that it doesn’t provide equal treatment for political candidates and parties.
A source at the Federal Communications Commission reportedly told Fox News Digital that the agency is examining the “fake news” morning program amid a crackdown on a rarely enforced rule designed to limit political bias on broadcast TV.
The show’s female panel, which includes former Trump administration adviser Alyssa Farah Griffin, is famously critical of the president and his allies.
The FCC’s probe reportedly hinges on the Communications Act of 1934, which calls for networks to give equal time to all legally filed candidates on a ballot regardless of political party.
The law was enacted to prevent broadcast stations from offering one-sided programming. It does “not apply to cable channels or other forms of distribution,” according to the FCC.
While the policy has historically not been rigorously enforced, the agency announced last month that it would formally require TV networks to adhere to the “statutory equal opportunities requirement,” specifically citing concerns over daytime and late-night talk shows on ABC, NBC and CBS.
“If a broadcast station permits any legally qualified candidate for public office to use its facilities, it shall provide an equal opportunity to all other legally qualified candidates for that office,” the FCC wrote in a public notice.
The agency said exemptions can be granted for what it described as “bona fide” news programming. Non-cable TV shows or interviews that are “motivated by partisan purposes” or used for “the specific advantage of a candidate” would not be entitled to an exemption and must therefore offer opposing candidates “comparable time and placement.”
The federal inquiry into “The View” is said to have been triggered by a Monday morning appearance by Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who was one of the first politicians to appear on “The View” since the FCC’s announcement.
ABC’s parent company, Disney, reportedly filed no exemption petition, and has seemingly not provided equal airtime on the network to candidates running against Talarico.
President Trump has had a long-running feud with “The View,” which is moderated by Whoopi Goldberg. On Jan. 21, the same day the FCC issued its announcement, the comedian televised a plea for Trump to be removed from office on the grounds of mental incompetence.
A White House spokesperson responded with a statement sent to Entertainment Weekly, calling Goldberg and co-host Sunny Hostin “useful idiots.”
Last summer, after panelist Joy Behar accused Trump of living in the shadow of his predecessor Obama, a White House spokesman suggested Behar should respect the president’s influence “before her show is the next to be pulled off air.”
Trump used to be on friendly terms with “The View.” In a 2011 appearance that preceded his run for president, the show invited him to share his debunked theory that Obama wasn’t a U.S. citizen. Goldberg and Trump sportingly said they loved one another, despite her accusation that he wouldn’t have questioned a white president‘s citizenship.
