In July, the FCC demanded that the Houston-based KTRK station “produce all internal communications among The View’s booking staff, its segment producers, its Executive Producer, and its on-air co-hosts discussing any candidate over a two-year period, together with the messages that two named cohosts had sent to the program’s Executive Producer about a single booking decision,” the lawsuit said.
The FCC letter of inquiry also “demanded that ABC disclose the political donations of individual employees and co-hosts,” the lawsuit said. Two weeks later, the FCC issued another letter making similar demands for Good Morning America, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, the lawsuit said.
“No provision of Section 315 [of the Communications Act] permits the government to demand a journalist’s or on-air anchor’s messages to her producer, to inventory her political contributions, or to audit the editorial standards of an entire news division,” the lawsuit said, adding that Carr has not initiated similar equal-time investigations into conservative talk radio stations.
The View’s speech chilled
Disney acknowledged that The View has changed its process for evaluating potential guests because of the FCC proceeding. No political candidate has appeared on the show since the February 2026 appearance of Talarico.
“Historically, decisions about which candidates or public figures to invite as guests were made based on newsworthiness, audience interest, and scheduling alone,” the lawsuit said. “Since the Bureau’s inquiry began, ABC must now evaluate any invitation to a political candidate for its potential consequences, including whether it might later be cited by the Commission as a basis for non-renewal in the Stations’ impending license renewal proceedings.”
ABC hasn’t stopped making news decisions that it knows would anger Trump, however. Last month, ABC decided not to broadcast a Trump primetime address live. “In direct response to ABC’s decision not to broadcast his address—and during the address itself—the President called for the revocation of the ABC Owned Stations’ broadcast licenses, as well as those of NBC, which had similarly chosen not to broadcast the address,” the lawsuit said.