ABC strikes back at Trump’s FCC

ABC has retained a top Supreme Court litigator and is accusing the Trump Federal Communications Commission of a First Amendment free speech violation.

In its filing, ABC said that the FCC’s actions had a “chilling effect” on free speech, specifically political speech the agency disagreed with, The New York Times reports.

At issue, the Times says, is a “minor regulatory dispute” over ABC’s “The View,” but the implications could extend beyond the single Houston, Texas station positioned in the dispute.

“The Commission’s order to file this Petition for Declaratory Ruling is unprecedented, beyond the Commission’s authority, and counterproductive to the Commission’s stated goal of encouraging free speech and open political discussion,” the filing reads. ABC alleges the FCC’s actions threaten to “upend decades of settled law and practice and chill critical protected speech, both with respect to The View and more broadly.”

The Times calls the filing “the most aggressive defense from any television network since President Trump kicked off an extended campaign last year to bring media organizations to heel.”

FCC chairman Brendan Carr has suggested ABC should not have presumed “The View” was exempt from equal-time rules.

“But the filing from ABC revealed for the first time the intensity of the agency’s efforts against the network,” the Times notes, “which have included extensive requests for documents and information about its operations and editorial approach.”

Variety adds that separately, “the FCC’s Media Bureau last week issued an unprecedented order forcing ABC to reapply for spectrum licenses on an accelerated schedule,” after President Donald Trump called for late night host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired.