ABC classifies The View – a show that spent last year hosting 128 liberal guests and two conservatives – as a news program.
Now Disney is recruiting viewers to defend that claim to the federal government.
But the FCC’s response is something Disney's lawyers did not see coming.
The View Equal Time Rule Violation That Started It All
The View put James Talarico – a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Texas – on the air without filing the equal time paperwork that federal law requires.
Under the Communications Act of 1934, broadcast stations that give airtime to a political candidate must offer the same opportunity to that candidate's opponents.
The View is produced under ABC's News division and has operated for decades under a "bona fide news" exemption that shields it from that requirement – a designation the FCC granted in 2002.
In practice, the show functions as an unregistered Democrat Super PAC, spending the better part of every broadcast bashing Trump and Republicans in front of a studio audience.
Brendan Carr's FCC revoked the automatic assumption behind that exemption in January 2026, putting every talk show on notice that partisan programming would no longer get a free pass.
ABC responded by filing a formal petition asking the FCC to officially confirm The View still qualifies as a bona fide news program.
The FCC then opened a public comment period on that question.
Disney did not like those odds.
ABC Broadcast License Renewal and the Petition Drive Disney Is Running
ABC launched an on-air campaign featuring footage of The View's late founder Barbara Walters, telling viewers the FCC is moving to dictate which guests the show is allowed to book.
Ads ran during The View itself and across eight ABC-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, and Fresno – markets where Disney also faces early license renewal hearings triggered by a separate FCC investigation into its diversity, equity and inclusion program.
The campaign directed viewers to a QR code linking to the FCC's public comment portal, urging them to file comments in The View's defense before the July 6 reply deadline.
ABC called the FCC's actions "unlawful, arbitrary, and unconstitutional" in its license renewal filings – language companies use when they know the facts are not on their side.
The FCC's response to the ad campaign was blunt: Disney "has chosen to run a campaign of misinformation to make its case – misleading viewers about the law."
Whoopi Goldberg and the Numbers That Make the Bona Fide News Claim Collapse
Brendan Carr had a simpler move.
He posted the View proceeding on X and asked one question: is The View actually bona fide news?
Then he dropped the link to the public comment page and let Americans answer for themselves.
The Media Research Center had already done the math Disney cannot argue with.
In all of 2025, The View featured 128 liberal guests and two conservatives – a ratio of 64 to 1.
Through the first months of 2026, the show booked 27 liberal guests to one conservative.
Disney's filing argues The View deserves the same bona fide news exemption given to Meet the Press and Face the Nation.
Meet the Press books Tim Scott, Tom Cotton, and Marco Rubio.
The View's conservative guest for the same period was Spencer Pratt.
The FCC's standard for bona fide news is clear: guest decisions must be based on newsworthiness, not partisan purposes.
Whoopi Goldberg was caught on camera admitting she and her co-hosts spent time on air disseminating Democrat messaging – "Oh, yes, it was. I was here. We did it!" she told Stephen A. Smith when he challenged her on it.
Sunny Hostin told viewers this year that the 2020 BLM riots caused "very limited destruction of property and violence" – a claim contradicted by the $1 to $2 billion in insured damages the riots actually produced.
Disney needed viewers because the show cannot defend itself on the merits because 128-to-2 is not a ratio any definition of news can survive.
Reply comments are due July 6 – and the FCC already knows who made the stronger case.
Sources:
- Brian Flood, "ABC launches on-air campaign encouraging viewers to support 'The View' in battle with Trump's FCC," Fox News, June 22, 2026.
- Staff, "ABC News' 'The View' has had 63 liberal guests in 2025 without a single conservative: study," Fox News, April 8, 2025.
- "FCC Seeks Comment on Whether ABC's The View Qualifies as a Bona Fide News Interview Program," Wiley Law, May 22, 2026.
- "Disney's ABC files early broadcast licenses renewal. FCC Chair vows to 'follow the facts,'" CNBC, May 28, 2026.
