Disney has spent months telling the federal government that The View is a serious news program — right up there with Meet the Press.
Now FCC Chairman Brendan Carr pulled back the curtain on what that “news program” actually looks like.
And what he found is going to make Disney wish they had never filed that petition in the first place.
What Carr Posted — and Why Disney Can’t Ignore It
Carr posted a montage video to social media of some of ABC daytime talk show The View‘s most biased, left-wing chatter and electioneering for Democrats as the agency considers whether the show has broken federal equal time rules.
Carr wrote that “Disney is arguing to the FCC that its ABC show The View is a ‘bona fide news program'” and that “Disney claims that its decisions are based on ‘newsworthiness’ — rather than partisan purposes — and thus exempt from political equal time rules.”
The video shows various members of The View‘s panel advocating exclusively for the Democrat Party and denigrating Republicans.
In one segment captured in the montage, co-host Ana Navarro told viewers that “if Americans want this to end, want the abuses of power checked, they have got to vote Democrat in November,” with no pushback from the panel.
In another segment, Sunny Hostin said, “We need to be realistic and as the Democratic Party, we need to win. We need to get this country back on.”
Whoopi Goldberg told the audience, “You know what to do on election day.”
And Disney wants the FCC to call that journalism.
Carr had already called this out weeks earlier, noting that “ABC is arguing to the FCC that The View is a ‘bona fide news program’ — just like Meet the Press — and thus exempt from the political equal opportunity rules,” before posting video of Hostin urging Democrats to “flip the Senate.”
Carr concluded his post by stating, “The FCC will make its decision based on all relevant evidence and precedents.”
How This Fight Got to This Point
Carr’s FCC announced earlier this year that it would require broadcast networks to adhere to the “statutory equal opportunities requirement,” citing the Communications Act of 1934, “including their airing of late-night and daytime talk shows.”
The FCC launched an investigation into ABC’s The View after an appearance by Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, which lasted a little less than 10 minutes.
Disney argued that The View qualifies as “bona fide news” under the law, comparing itself to Meet the Press or Face the Nation, and that it can therefore have one partisan candidate on the show while denying equal opportunities to all others.
Carr told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham: “If you are bona fide news, you don’t have to give candidates equal air time. But, Disney and ‘The View’ have not established that that program is, in fact, bona fide news. We’ve started enforcement proceedings, taking a look at that. And, again, we’re going to hold broadcasters accountable.”
That was the warning shot. The montage video is what comes after the warning.
According to the Media Research Center, The View failed to book a single right-leaning guest to discuss politics between January and April 2025. At the same time, the show welcomed 63 liberal guests, including nine Democrat politicians.
Sixty-three to zero. Disney wants a federal exemption to keep that ratio going, permanently, with no legal accountability.
Under FCC case law, TV shows do not qualify as “bona fide news” if their decisions are based on partisan purposes, such as an intention to advance or harm an individual’s candidacy. The montage Carr posted isn’t subtle. It’s hosts on a federally licensed broadcast network telling their audience which party to vote for, repeatedly, across multiple election cycles.
What Disney Is Really Asking For
Think about what this petition actually requests. Disney wants the federal government to officially certify that a show where co-hosts tell viewers to “vote Democrat in November” is a neutral news operation — and that this certification should shield the show from any obligation to let Republican candidates speak.
The equal time law, even when it applies, does not prohibit anyone from having any candidate appear on any show. Congress intended it to empower voters with more information and encourage more speech. Disney’s petition isn’t about protecting journalism. It’s about protecting the ability to platform one party’s candidates while locking out the other’s — and doing it on broadcast airwaves that belong to the American public.
Disney launched a campaign urging the audience tuning into The View to offer public comment as the company grappled with pressure from the Trump administration. The hosts of the show told viewers to go contact the FCC on Disney’s behalf. Which is, itself, a pretty clean illustration of exactly what Carr is talking about.
Carr has been careful to note he does not view the FCC as the “speech police,” telling one interviewer, “I don’t view the FCC as the speech police.” But applying a law Congress wrote decades ago to a show that openly campaigns for one political party isn’t policing speech. It’s doing the job.
Carr put it plainly: “The days that these legacy media broadcasters get to decide what we can say, what we can think, who we can vote for are over. I think President Trump played a key role in just smashing the facade that they still get to decide the narrative here.”
The bigger picture here is something the media establishment has never wanted to reckon with. For decades, left-leaning broadcast shows operated under an informal understanding that calling themselves news was enough to avoid scrutiny. Nobody enforced the rules. Nobody asked hard questions about whether a panel of Democrat activists telling viewers how to vote on election day constituted journalism. The FCC looked the other way, and Disney got used to that arrangement.
Carr is not looking the other way. And Disney, which spent years betting that the rules would never actually apply to them, is now scrambling to get a legal exemption before the bill comes due.
The montage video isn’t the end of this fight. It’s Carr building a public record — showing the American people exactly what Disney is trying to protect. Whatever the FCC ultimately decides, that record now exists, and voters can judge for themselves whether Whoopi Goldberg telling an audience “you know what to do on election day” belongs in the same category as a nightly news broadcast.
Sources: Breitbart, Townhall, Western Journal, Variety, Fox News Digital, Gateway Pundit