By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — ABC is accusing the Trump administration’s media regulator of threatening broadcasters’ First Amendment rights.
In an extraordinary legal letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the network accuses the agency of threatening “to upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech.”
At issue, specifically, is “The View,” ABC’s daytime talk show that has become a popular destination for politicians, particularly Democrats.
But ABC’s letter to the FCC, signed by prominent conservative attorney and Supreme Court litigator Paul Clement, says the government is posing a broader threat to free speech and political discussion.
“Uncertainty as to the scope of broadcast licensees’ editorial discretion threatens to limit news coverage of political candidates and chill core First Amendment-protected speech for years and potentially decades to come,” Clement wrote.
“As the 2026 midterm election approaches, the American people need more access to political news and more exposure to political candidates, not less,” he added.
The New York Times, which was the first to report on the legal letter, called it “the most aggressive posture taken yet by a television network toward the Trump administration.”
FCC chairman Brendan Carr had no immediate response to the ABC filing.
‘The View’ under FCC scrutiny
The legal letter was filed in response to the FCC’s highly unusual decision to open an inquiry into “The View” earlier this year.
However, there’s more to the timing. It was submitted about a week after the FCC called up all eight of ABC’s station licenses for an early renewal process.
The agency’s order — in effect challenging the stations and subjecting them to a lengthy legal process — was widely seen as a form of government retaliation.
Carr, who has moved in lockstep with President Trump during Trump’s second term, claimed the license challenge was part of an ongoing FCC probe into diversity initiatives at ABC’s parent company Disney.
But the order came just one day after Trump pressed ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and ABC signaled that it would not do so. Kimmel’s show remains on the air, as does “The View,” another show Trump dislikes and often publicly criticizes.
The government’s examination of “The View” centers on the “equal time” rule that previous FCC chairs have downplayed.
The rule requires stations to give equal airtime to all legally qualified candidates for public office — if one is featured, his or her rivals have to be given time, too.
But there are big exemptions for news coverage, with news defined broadly. In 2002, Clement’s letter points out, the FCC gave ABC a ruling that “The View” qualifies as “a bona fide news interview program” and is thus exempt from “equal time” concerns.
Carr has sought to challenge how those exemptions apply to daytime and late-night talk shows — categories that include some of Trump’s most frequent on-air critics. “Obviously, questions have been raised about whether they are, in fact, bona fide news,” he said on a podcast last month.
In February, the FCC sent KTRK, an ABC-owned station in Houston, a letter scrutinizing Texas Senate candidate James Talarico’s primary-season appearance on “The View,” and followed up in March with demands.
Clement’s letter argues that the FCC has overstepped its authority and has had “harmful effects on free speech.”
He says the FCC should affirm that the talk show does still qualify for the “equal time” exemption to avoid further harm.
“Some may dislike certain — or even most — of the viewpoints expressed on The View or similar shows. Such dislike, however, cannot justify using regulatory processes to restrict those views,” the letter stated.
Anna Gomez, the lone