Joy Behar has lectured conservatives about democracy from a federally protected news program for 24 years.
Her days of claiming The View is real news are coming to an end.
What the FCC is about to take from Disney goes well beyond one talk show.
The View FCC Investigation Began With a 2002 Ruling ABC Has Exploited Ever Since
In 2002, the FCC made a quiet decision that handed ABC a blank check.
The agency declared The View a "bona fide news interview program" – the same legal category as Meet the Press, the CBS Evening News, and Face the Nation – which meant federal equal-time rules for political candidates did not apply.
The View could book any Democrat it wanted during an election year without offering Republicans a single minute of comparable airtime, and ABC used that privilege for two decades without challenge.
A Media Research Center study of the full year 2025 found The View hosted 128 left-wing guests – and two conservatives.
When Joy Behar was asked why no Republicans appeared on the show, she told viewers they were "scared." What she did not mention: Ted Cruz and Riley Gaines were among conservatives whose guest requests were rejected outright.
How a Texas Democrat Senate Candidate Triggered the Equal Time Ruling
The reckoning began in February when The View hosted Texas Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico during a contested primary race.
Brendan Carr opened an investigation and ABC's Houston affiliate was ordered by the FCC's Media Bureau to formally establish whether The View still qualified for the news exemption it had relied on for 24 years.
Disney fought back with high-priced lawyers and a public pressure campaign. ABC ran on-air commercials urging viewers to flood the FCC with comments, telling audiences the agency was trying to dictate who the network could put on television.
Carr did not budge. He told reporters Disney's grievance was with the law Congress wrote, and that the FCC intended to enforce it.
More than 91,000 public comments flooded the two FCC proceedings combined – the vast majority against Disney.
The FCC's lone Democrat commissioner Anna Gomez acknowledged the pressure campaign was working as intended when she wrote that the early license renewal demand was meant to force Disney into compliance rather than resolve a legitimate regulatory question.
Disney did not comply.
ABC Broadcast License Revocation Threat Now Covers Eight Owned Stations
Bloomberg is reporting the FCC is preparing to rule before Labor Day that The View does not qualify as a news program under federal broadcast law.
That ruling would force ABC to offer equal airtime to rival candidates whenever the show features a political candidate – ending the show's two-decade run as a Democrat campaign platform during election season.
The license threat is the one that has Disney's lawyers working weekends.
The FCC is simultaneously pushing ABC's broadcast license review into an administrative hearing – a formal legal proceeding that puts the operating licenses of ABC-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, San Francisco, Raleigh-Durham, and Fresno at direct risk.
Conservative organizations including the Media Research Center, America First Legal, and the Center for American Rights have already petitioned the FCC to pull those licenses entirely, arguing ABC has used public airwaves to advance a partisan agenda rather than serve its viewers.
The Audience That Trusted ABC Longer Than It Should Have
The View was never news. It was always a left-wing political operation that happened to air between commercial breaks selling laundry detergent.
The 2002 ruling that classified it as journalism gave Disney the legal right to operate a Democrat Party television arm on public airwaves – airwaves that belong to every American, including every conservative who got lectured by Whoopi Goldberg about what a threat they were to democracy.
Brendan Carr is enforcing a law Congress passed in 1934 to stop media gatekeepers from using public airwaves to tilt elections. The people who wrote that law watched powerful broadcasters pick winners and losers in American politics and decided it had to stop.
ABC turned The View into exactly what that law was designed to prevent. Carr is just the first FCC chairman in 90 years willing to say so out loud.
- Ariel Zilber, "'The View' faces trouble as FCC prepares to crack down on ABC show, revoke Disney licenses: report," New York Post, July 16, 2026.
- Hanna Panreck, "'The View' reportedly limits political guests amid FCC equal time probe," Fox News, July 2026.
- Staff, "FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Accuses Disney's ABC of 'Misinformation Campaign' Amid 'The View,' Broadcast License Reviews," The Wrap, June 2026.
- Staff, "'The View' rejects Republican guests while claiming they're too scared to appear," Fox News, October 2025.
- Staff, "Disney asks FCC to exempt 'The View' from equal time rule as 'bona fide news' program," The National Desk, May 22, 2026.
