The audacity required to file a legal brief claiming that The View is a “bona fide news interview program” guided by editorial judgment rather than partisan purposes — while clips of Ana Navarro telling viewers to “vote Democrat in November” are sitting on the internet for anyone to watch — is genuinely breathtaking.
Disney filed exactly that brief with the FCC this week, arguing that the 2002 ruling qualifying The View for the equal time exemption should remain in place and that the Trump administration is simply trying to chill speech it doesn’t like. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s response was five words and a video: here’s some of the show.
The clips speak for themselves. Navarro telling viewers who want Trump restrained to “vote Democrat.” Hostin and Behar providing what amounts to a daily campaign rally for the Democratic Party, delivered between commercial breaks and celebrity guest segments. Whoopi Goldberg doing her thing. None of this resembles a news program in any meaningful sense of that word. It resembles exactly what it is: partisan commentary television that happens to occasionally have political guests.
The equal time rule exists for a simple reason. When a broadcast station — which operates on public airwaves under a license granted by the federal government — gives one candidate access while denying it to opponents, the regulatory framework requires correction. The bona fide news exemption exists because genuine journalism makes editorial decisions based on newsworthiness, not partisan advantage. When you decide which guests to book and which topics to cover based on who it helps or hurts politically, you’ve left the news business and entered the campaign business.
Disney’s argument that a 24-year-old ruling settles the question permanently is legally creative but practically absurd. The FCC’s own guidance says these determinations are fact-specific based on what the program actually is. What The View was in 2002 and what The View is in 2026 are not the same thing. The show has shifted steadily from light entertainment with political interviews to something closer to a daily MSNBC simulcast with a studio audience. A letter written when George W. Bush was in his first term doesn’t automatically immunize everything that has happened to the program since.
None of this means the FCC should become, as Carr himself said, “America’s speech police.” Joy Behar can despise Republicans. Sunny Hostin can defend Democrats. Whoopi Goldberg can spend an hour criticizing Trump. The First Amendment protects all of it. What it doesn’t protect is the legal privilege of being treated as a neutral news operation while actively telling your audience which party to elect.
Carr has the right framing: apply the laws Congress passed. The law says editorial decisions must be based on newsworthiness rather than partisan purposes. Disney’s own clips disprove their own brief.
Fifteen percent of Americans would eat gas station sushi. Only eight percent trust the media. The View is both a symptom and an explanation of that number.
