The Future of Free Speech’s Joint Comment to The FCC on Petition to Declare ‘The View’ Bonafide News Interview Program

Comments to the Federal Communications Commission

RE: In the Matter of the Media Bureau Seeks Comment on Petition by Disney’s ABC Asking the FCC to Declare that The View Qualifies as a Bona Fide News Interview Program and Thus Is Exempt from the Statutory Equal Opportunities Requirements

MB Docket No. 26-124

June 18, 2026

The Future of Free Speech is an independent, nonpartisan think tank located at
Vanderbilt University. We work to reaffirm freedom of expression as the bedrock of free
and thriving societies through actionable research, empowering tools, and principled
advocacy. The Future of Free Speech seeks to create a world where everyone’s right to
freedom of expression is protected by law and reinforced by a culture that tolerates
diverse viewpoints.

The American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) is a nationwide, nonprofit organization that
since 1920 has sought to protect the civil liberties and civil rights of all Americans. The
ACLU is one of the nation’s preeminent defenders of the First Amendment and the value
of free speech.

The Center for Democracy & Technology (“CDT”) is a non-profit public interest
organization. For more than thirty years, CDT has advocated before legislatures,
regulatory agencies, and courts in support of protecting First Amendment rights
regardless of the communications medium.

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) is an alliance of more than sixty
national non-profit literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil
liberties groups. Founded in 1974, NCAC’s purpose is to promote freedom of thought,
inquiry, and expression and to oppose all forms of censorship.

We, the undersigned groups, write in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) request for comment as to whether The View qualifies as a bona fide news interview program that is exempt from the equal time rule. We believe that this proceeding violates the constitutional rights of all our nation’s broadcasters, as well as the public who relies upon them for their access to news and information.

This proceeding has four constitutional defects. First, the Commission is unsettling its own guidance without fair notice. Its 2002 ruling that The View qualifies for bona fide news interview exemption has stood undisturbed for 24 years. With this Notice, the Commission has generated uncertainty — not only for The View but for numerous programs that would consider hosting candidate interviews — that will inevitably chill political coverage as we approach the 2026 midterm elections.

Second, the bona fide news exemption is what has allowed the equal time statute to operate within constitutional bounds for six decades. Stripped of the exemption, a single candidate interview would obligate every station airing the program to offer comparable time to every legally qualified opponent. Broadcasters facing that exposure will not book more candidates; they will book none.

Third, the Notice asks the Commission to decide for itself whether the program’s booking decisions reflect genuine newsworthiness or partisan intent. The Commission has refused to ask this question of any program for 40 years, because the government cannot constitutionally be the arbiter of what counts as news.

Fourth, the circumstances surrounding this proceeding — public criticism of the program’s viewpoints by the officials regulating it, the issuing of orders without precedent in the Commission’s history, and scrutiny trained on a single program — satisfy every factor of the government coercion analysis in National Rifle Association v. Vullo.

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