LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Big TV networks often use their channels to promote their own shows. ABC is using its airwaves to push back on what it says are the Trump administration's efforts to muzzle its free speech.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR #1: "The View" has welcomed your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years. Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show.
FADEL: As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, you're watching a pitched battle between one of the nation's largest television networks and the U.S. government.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: The Federal Communications Commission sets the rules by which companies can broadcast on the public airwaves. As its chair, Brendan Carr is the top enforcer. He has had ABC and its corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, in his crosshairs since the outset of the second Trump administration.
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BRENDAN CARR: We've been making very clear over the last 18 or so months that we are going to be holding broadcasters accountable.
FOLKENFLIK: Carr is investigating the ABC chat show "The View." He argues it is unfair to the president and Republicans. This from an interview with NPR late last month.
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CARR: If you want to have a program and put it out over the broadcast airwaves, you should comply with the rules of the road.
FOLKENFLIK: The rule he's referring to is called equal time. That means networks and stations can't favor specific candidates or political parties during election season on any of their shows - except, that is, for news programs. Government officials aren't supposed to interfere with journalists' independent news judgment. For two decades, the FCC has deemed "The View" as a news show and thus exempt from that rule. Carr has sharply questioned that. Carr is also investigating whether Disney should be stripped of the broadcast licenses for the eight local TV stations it owns - that dispute over the diversity, equity and inclusion policies at the company.
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CARR: In the case of Disney, in particular, our enforcement investigation is not about speech. It's about conduct and whether they have had policies that discriminate.
FOLKENFLIK: Among other things, Carr has zeroed in on policies meant to boost hiring of people from underrepresented groups in front of the camera and behind it. Disney and ABC declined comment. In legal filings, ABC and Disney call Carr's claims baloney, and they say his actions are an unconstitutional drive to punish free speech. That one could hit Disney where it hurts. ABC holds licenses in the nation's six largest TV markets. Now it is appealing to viewers of those stations. Here's what it's airing in New York City.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR #2: Channel 7 has proudly served you for more than 75 years. Every day, we commit to inform, entertain and serve you. Now the FCC is questioning our commitment to the community.
FOLKENFLIK: The FCC rarely fails to renew a license. It does so only in extreme circumstance. And to force a broadcaster to defend its license years ahead of schedule, as Carr has done to ABC, that's almost unheard of.
ARTHUR BELENDIUK: I've been doing this for how long? Forty-six years. Forty-six years. I've been doing this for 46 years. I've never seen anything like it.
FOLKENFLIK: Arthur Belendiuk has practiced FCC law for, as I believe you've just heard, a very long time. He notes the FCC has not set this for a public hearing, and he says there's a reason for that.
BELENDIUK: They want to hold something over Disney's head that says, oh, we might pull your license if you don't toe the line. They care about Disney, "The View," Jimmy Kimmel. Get in line before the midterms, or we're going to cause you trouble.
FOLKENFLIK: Belendiuk is filing briefs this morning on behalf of the Media Action Center and Frequency Forward, two public interest groups. He's using a legal maneuver to try to force the FCC's decision-making process into the open.
BELENDIUK: They don't get to do this behind closed doors.
FOLKENFLIK: Carr said Thursday afternoon that Disney is offering misinformation about his actions. Last I checked the FCC website, there were more than 40,000 public comments on the licensing question, another 53,000 on "The View." Not all of those favor ABC. The conservative Media Research Center says it delivered voluminous evidence that "The View" favors Democrats. But I read through a bunch of comments from ABC viewers and, man, are they ticked off at the idea of losing their shows.
David Folkenflik, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF ANDWELLA'S "MICHAEL FITZHENRY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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